CIRCA 1785

From the famed service purchased by Colonel 'Light-Horse Harry' Lee for George Washington in New York in 1786, 66 pieces of which are at the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum. The insignia of the Cincinnati Society (founded in 1783 at the suggestion of Major General Henry Knox, inspired by the Roman farmer turned patriot/soldier Cincinnatus) was a popular with the leaders of the new Republic, the orders having been organized by Major Samuel Shaw, supercargo on the Empress of China and former aide-de-camp to General Knox. See D.S. Howard and J.S. Ayers, op. cit., pp. 489-91 and A. Palmer, A Winterthur Guide to Chinese Export Porcelain, p. 133