“Consumer Revolution” that caused a remarkable rise in the range of fashionable domestic goods and the number of people able to buy them. From the 1750s to the 1790s Washington purchased more than 7,300 ceramic tablewares at a cost of over £2,500 (perhaps as much as $250,000 today) for his households in Virginia, New York, and Philadelphia. These purchases partly reflect the Washingtons’ status as leading social and political figures, which required them to host large formal events. Surviving records also document the couple’s enthusiasm for acquiring the latest products—as fashions changed so did the look of their dinner table.

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In 1757 Washington received a bill from Thomas Knox in Bristol, England, for a 202-piece white stoneware table service, which included plates of the sort shown here. The total cost for this set was nearly £3, a substantial sum considering that an average American laborer earned only around £12 per year. Washington continued to expand his set of durable and fashionable stonewares. The next year he bought plates and dishes totaling £5. After his marriage to the widow Martha Custis in 1759, they spent an additional £10 for white stoneware from the estate of her deceased first husband.

In 1770 George and Martha replaced the stoneware table service at Mount Vernon with a fashionable creamware set. The London agent Robert Cary billed the couple more than £10 for this 250-piece set of “cream colored” wares. The plates cost 4 pence each, the same as the 1757 stoneware plates. Adjusted for inflation, however, the price was comparatively less. Invented by the English manufacturer Josiah Wedgwood, creamware could be made as thin as stoneware and porcelain but could be fired at a lower temperature, making it less expensive.

George Washington paid the enormous sum of £60 in 1783 (about $5000 today) for a 302-piece set of Chinese porcelain. Each piece featured a blue printed border and an allegorical figure of Fate holding a badge in the shape of an eagle. This image was the mark of the Society of the Cincinnati, which was founded for American officers who served during the Revolutionary War. George Washington was a logical choice to lead the Society because he, like the Roman leader Cincinnatus, was a gentleman farmer who helped his country win its independence then returned to his farm. Several of these commemorative porcelain sets were produced in China and decorated by skilled painters who copied color drawings brought from America by a merchant. Washington paid such a high price for this set of porcelain in part because it was imported from so far away and also because of its exclusive decoration.