?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 400 - $ 600
Votes for Women. Two China Bread-and-Butter Plates.
Burslem, England: John Maddock & Sons, [circa 1909].
Two small transferware vitreous porcelain plates with the slogan, "Votes for Women" applied in a cobalt script along the lip in an italic font; each 6 in.
Alva Vanderbilt Belmont (1853-1933), a proponent of the American women's suffrage movement, was first exposed to militant suffrage activists in London in 1908. There she saw that the International Suffrage Alliance was making progress through press attention, and the sale of suffrage merch. With her social status and wealth, Belmont made Marble House, her Newport, RI summer mansion, the site of conferences for the cause in 1909 and 1914. She commissioned the Votes for Women set of dishes for her table and attracted approximately 1,000 attendees in 1909. For a dollar, one could listen to speakers, for five dollars, Belmont offered a tour of the house. Belmont also operated the Political Equality Association in midtown Manhattan, where Votes for Women plates, cups, and bowls graced the lunchroom.
