Monticello Dining Room Plaques Set/3

In 2025, staff at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello celebrated the restoration of the dining room mantlepiece with the installation of exacting replica Wedgwood jasperware plaques. The need for replacement plaques was the result of the actions of, as great-granddaughter Ellen Randolph Harrison noted, “an inartistic and relic-hunting nation of vandals.” Harrison recalled that the original central scene “bore the lovely design of Cupid and Psyche with troops of attending loves,” referencing the celebrated Wedgwood plaque representing The Marriage of Cupid and Psyche. At Monticello, the central plaque with Cupid and Psyche was flanked by oval examples featuring cupids in the guise of two of the Four Seasons, in this case Summer and Winter.

How Jefferson acquired the Wedgwood plaques is unknown, but whether through purchase or gift, they were installed in Monticello’s dining room around 1805. The story of Cupid and Psyche is taken from Aupelius’ Metamorphosis, where the protagonists undergo trials set by the gods before their triumphant wedding. Wedgwood modeled the subject and composition after an antique cameo known as the Marlborough gem, now in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. The marriage theme, which celebrates feasting, made it a suitable scene for a dining room. Jefferson’s use of Wedgwood plaques in an architectural setting at Monticello has few parallels in American interiors of the Federal era, making the original installation a highly significant case study for scholars and collectors.

To recreate the lost originals, Monticello’s curators collaborated with the designers and master artisans at Wedgwood/Fiskars Group who generously agreed to exclusively create sets of reproduction plaques derived from their archive of historic patterns. Each jasperware plaque is a diminutive masterpiece featuring precision details and coloring, authentic proportions and scale fitted to Monticello, and a pleasing finish.  Monticello contracted for a limited number of complete sets as an exclusive and one-time only commission, recreating classic forms and designs that are no longer in production. A limited release of six sets, which include three plaques: The Marriage of Cupid and Psyche, Summer and Winter are available for purchase, providing an extraordinary opportunity to celebrate the artistry and history of Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello and the classical beauty of Wedgwood jasperware.

H: 6 1/16" x W: 8 1/8" x D: 9/16"