Even during the Revolutionary War, General Washington wanted to dine in style. While encamped in New Jersey in 1779 he ordered Deputy Quartermaster General John Mitchell to procure some decent dinnerwares:

My plates and dishes, once of Tinn, now little better than rusty iron, are rather too much worn for delicate stomachs in fixed and peaceable quarters… I therefore desire that you will send me a sett of Queens China if it be had…

Mitchell’s assignment was not easy. War  interrupted  the importation of English ceramics to America. However, he managed to put together from two different sources a large set of creamware, also known as “Queensware.” Due to war-time inflation, Washington—or, more likely, the American military—had to pay the exorbitant sum of £350. Mitchell notified the general:

I have sent the Queensware, Candlesticks & snuffers by a Waggon who setts off today… the extravagant price of the Articles will no doubt astonish you, but there was no alternative.