See George Washington’s Presidential China Up Close at Winterthur
The museum’s September 13 Curators’ Salon offers a rare chance to closely examine pieces from the historic 302-piece Society of the Cincinnati dinner service.
There are plenty of places to see objects that belonged to George Washington, but very few where his dinner plates are quite this approachable. On September 13, Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library will offer a small group the chance to closely examine several pieces from Washington’s Society of the Cincinnati dinner service, the Chinese export porcelain he used in the presidential residences in New York and Philadelphia. The afternoon program will be led by Luke Pecoraro, Winterthur’s newly appointed curator of ceramics and glass, who previously served as director of archaeology at Mount Vernon.
The service itself was commissioned by Samuel Shaw, the first American merchant to trade with China, and the 302 pieces were procured by Washington in 1786 and decorated with the insignia of the Society of the Cincinnati, the organization formed three years earlier by officers of the American Revolution. Against an elaborate blue border picked out in gold, the central decoration depicts the figure of Fame holding the society’s badge, turning the Chinese export porcelain into a distinctly American souvenir of the Revolution. After Washington’s death, the set passed among his relations and was eventually dispersed. Henry Francis du Pont assembled 74 pieces for Winterthur, which today holds the largest surviving group in any collection.
The scattered pieces do still surface on the market, where they command presidential-sized bids at auction. This June, a circa-1785 plate from Washington’s service sold at Boston auction house Grogan & Company for $137,500, against an estimate of $30,000 to $50,000. An example offered at Christie’s in 2013 brought $98,500.
During the September salon, Pecoraro will trace the service from its production in China through its life in the new American republic, while sharing new research into the whereabouts of its “missing pieces.” Several examples will be taken out for close examination rather than simply viewed in Winterthur’s permanent display. The program runs from 2 to 4:30 p.m.; advance reservations are required and capacity is limited.