The fashion for Chinese porcelain was as present among the elite of 18th century America as it was for their brethren in the Old World, and first president George Washington was himself an avid collector.
Washington would have used his collection to decorate his table when entertaining guests at dinner, with the quality of the tableware signifying the level of his taste.
“Pray,” Washington wrote in 1785 when ordering porcelain from his merchant in London, “let them be neat and fashionable or send none.”
While the English and Dutch were the leading exporters of these luxury goods to the colonies in the early to mid-1700s, a new trade route was established following the American Revolution allowing ships to travel directly to China.
The first of the ships to travel the new route was the Empress of China, which was launched on Washington’s birthday in 1784.
It returned to New York in 1785 with about 64 tonnes of porcelain. Washington acquired a 302-piece set from this shipment featuring the crest of the Society of the Cincinnati, whose members were officers in the revolution.
Today, much of the porcelain that Washington amassed during his life remains at his family home, Mount Vernon, in Virginia.
