the cafe au lait size cup painted with a bankside scene of waving well-wishers greeting the paddlewheeler identified as "Ruth", "St. Louis, Cairo, & New Orleans", the reserve flanked with the gilt inscriptions "To My Wife, Geo. Pegram, Master" and "D.W. Smith, W.K. Walker, Clerks". The saucer bears the initials of the three gentlemen, embellished with laurel branches, h.-3 3/4". Note: R.T. Lux is considered the most important porcelain painter of New Orleans during the 19th century. He is best known for his rare presentation plates, cups and saucers depicting Mississippi River packet steamers and his portraiture of Union soldiers and prominent New Orleans families. Collections include the New Orleans Museum of Art, The Historic New Orleans Collection, The Louisiana State Museum and The Emile Kuntz Collection, New Orleans. Lux must have painted this piece commemoratively, as the "Ruth" burned August 4, 1863. Built by the Howard Steamboat Company in 1862, the "Ruth" went into service immediately as a U.S. transport. On each wheelhouse was a magnificent painting of Ruth, the daughter-in-law of Naomi, gleaning in the harvest field after the reapers Boaz. The "Ruth" burned while southbound on the Mississippi, six miles below Cairo, Illinois. She was loaded with military stores and had in her safe $2.6 million in greenbacks. Thirty lives were lost. The fire was blamed on a Confederate arsonist, confirmed later by Absalom Grimes, a mail runner who wrote a book. Grimes lay the blame on Robert Louden, also a Confederate mail runner. Ref. Way's Packet Directory 1848-1983, copyright 1983 by Sons and Daughters of Pioneer Rivermen.