Soup tureen,

ca. 1783

Specially designated export porcelain was produced extensively through the eighteenth century in China. These objects were made using the sophisticated technical skills and artistry employed in the production of domestic wares but designed to accommodate foreign taste. Large armorial dinner services, including a wide array of specialized forms, were commissioned for Western markets. Some, such as the tureens displayed here, were modeled on the designs of contemporary silverware. As competing European and American manufacturers were established, production diminished, making the dinner set made for Elias Boudinot IV at the end of the eighteenth century a late example of the declining trade. The dinnerware was a gift from Congress to Boudinot for his extensive service to the fledgling United States, which culminated in his term as President of the Continental Congress in 1782–83, when he recommended temporarily moving Congress to Princeton—briefly making the small town the nation’s capital.