SACRED BIRD & BUTTERFLY SERVICE PLATE

This large dinner plate may be used as a place plate or for the main course.  It is an adaptation of the well known dinner pattern in evidence in Charleston, SC in the 1800's. The original of this Chinese export pattern may be found set in the dining room of Charleston's famed Nathaniel Russel House on occasion. Perhaps the popularity of the butterfly comes, in part, from the fact that the Chinese word for butterfly, (tieh), expresses the wish that the owner might live to a ripe old age.