Lot Essay
As many as five different services were made with this decoration, all taken from an as-yet unidentified engraving of the famous view, probably after an oil painting now in the director's office at Mount Vernon and illustrated by Howard & Ayers, op. cit., vol. II p. 495. Like the Washington Memorial porcelains these orders may have been inspired by the national outpouring of sorrow at the first President's death in 1799.