Extremely rare, one-of-a-kind piece, and quite possibly the last surviving piece of Admiral Dewey's Official Naval China Messware after he was awarded his 4th Star by Congress in 1903 and promoted to the US Navy's only ever rank of "Admiral of the Fleet" (backdated for pay and benefits to 1899). This fish server is not a commemorative or presentation piece but an actual part of Dewey's official US Navy Dinnerware that he certainly used for formal occasions and most likely was even intended to be used as his everyday Admirals china as well.
This is huge fish serving platter (22" x 10") which was part of the Official Navy-issued China produced for Admiral Dewey after he received his 4th Star and was made "Admiral of the Navy" upon having successfully engaged the Spanish Armada at Manila Bay during the Spanish American War. This was the highest ranking naval officer ever, and this fish platter is an historically significant piece of naval dinnerware. Dewey received is 4th Star in 1903 but it was retroactive to 1899, he was also then made Admiral of the Navy and held that post until his death in 1917.
In determining the provenance of this piece note the following: the 4 Star Admirals Flag with Fouled Anchor to the left, the blue field Union Jack with 45 white stars to the right, along with the initials USN placed between. Both the 4 Star Admirals Flag and the Union Jack of 45 stars is significant in establishing provenance, with the Union Jack being representative of the one which was flown on Dewey's flagship the USS Olympia during the SpanAm War.
The Union Jack being shown has 45 Stars and only used from 1896 thru 1907. Each star in the Union Jack represents a state within our Union. In 1896 Utah was added as the 45th state in the Union and an additional star was then added to both the National Flag and the Naval Union Jack for a total of 45 stars. This number of states and stars remained the same for 12 years when in 1907 Oklahoma joined the Union as the 46th state, Click Here to Review List of States as Entered by Date into the Union).
Fish Server was manufactured between the 1890's and 1911. The fish server has an imprinted manufacturers backstamp located on the bottom of the piece with a capital "M" above the word "CHINA" which is above a capital "L" which was the bottom mark used by the Maddock Lamberton China Company ca 1890's-1911! This backstamp has been date documented and can be seen in Barbara Conway's authoritive "Restaurant China Identification Guide, Volume 2".
Only a single 4 Star Admiral was commissioned between 1870 and 1915. Through research it has been determined that during the period in question, 1896 thru 1907 there was only a single 4 Star Admiral in the Navy, and it was none other than Dewey! Click Here To Review List of 4 Star Admirals) Additionally, yet only anecdotal, the initials USN shown being used on the fish server are in the older pre-WWI font and style.
So therefore in triangulating the 3 pieces of known bonafide indisputable data it can be positively determined that this fish server was part of Admiral Dewey's official dinnerware after he had made 4 Star Admiral in 1903 and backdated to 1899.
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