George Washington (1732–1799)
President, 1789–97

The first American president acknowledged the social importance of a fashionably equipped dining table as early as 1757 when, as a young bachelor, he ordered “fine china dishes” from an English merchant.¹ Throughout his lifetime of public service and private occupation, George Washington participated substantially in matters of domestic taste and style. Memorabilia, including porcelains, from the Washington household have descended through the grandchildren of Martha Washington: Eliza Parke Custis Law (1776–1832), Martha Parke Custis Peter (1777–1854), Eleanor “Nelly” Parke Custis Lewis (1779–1852), and George Washington Parke Custis (1781–1857).

The Dutch trader Andreas van Braam Houckgeest brought a porcelain service from Canton to Philadelphia in 1796 in a box labeled “for Lady Washington.”² Specifically designed for Mrs. Washington by Van Braam, each piece of the service displays Van Braam’s program of enameled symbolic motifs, including the serpent swallowing its tail (a symbol for eternity), a strong chain of fifteen states copied from Benjamin Franklin’s design for colonial Pennsylvania currency, a Latin motto about strength and glory from Vergil’s Aeneid, and Martha Washington’s monogram on a glorified golden disk. Originally comprising about forty pieces, the service was intended primarily for display. The forms included a covered two-handled cup, also called a chocolate or caudle cup, made in China for export to the Dutch market by 1700. Sèvres called the form tasse à la reine, and it was made in England by the New Hall, Caughley, Derby, and other factories late in the eighteenth century. Today, fewer than twenty pieces of this service are known.

The popularity of the Martha Washington “States” china inspired numerous reproductions by French, English, and American manufacturers from the last quarter of the nineteenth century to the present. Susan Gray Detweiler, from American Presidential China: The Robert L. McNeil, Jr. Collection at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (2008), p. 26.

Notes:
1) “Invoice of goods shipped by Richd Washington to George Washington from London, per the Sally,” August 20, 1757. Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, George Washington Papers. Cited in Susan Gray Detweiler, George Washington’s Chinaware (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1982), p. 200.
2) Supplement to the master’s declaration of entry for the Lady Louisa. Philadelphia, April 25, 1796. National Archives Trust Fund. Cited In Detweiler, George Washington’s Chinaware, p. 154.