At Mount Vernon are two beautiful dishes which were presented to the Association by Mr. Corcoran, and are said to have been George Washington’s. One is a salad or berry-dish, seven and a half inches square and an inch and a half deep; the edges are irregularly and gracefully scalloped. There is a narrow rim of gold around the edge; within, a wide band of blue broken by a chain of circular rings in gold, each enclosing a gold dot; within this a narrow band of gold; and a delicate gold beading forms the inside edge of the border. Little bunches and sprigs of flowers are scattered over the centre, having gold stems and leaves and blue blossoms. The plate has the same decoration. Both have the small blue S of the Salopian or Caughley works on the base. Mrs. Russel, of Cambridge, Mass., has a plate of this set, which was given to her by Mr. Corcoran. These three pieces are evidently part of a dessert-service—but where are the other pieces? The “blue and white china in common use,” referred to in Martha Washington’s will, was of a kind familiar to us all, “old blue Canton.” Several pieces of it are now in the National Museum. Miss Lyon has two dishes of rather better quality that came from Mount Vernon, Nankin china apparently. Others have recently been sold at auction in Philadelphia in 1891. Washington used this cheerful, substantial Canton china “for common use” on his every-day table, just as did every other good and wealthy American citizen of his day and time. Besides the pieces of blue and white Canton china which he ordered of Colonel Tilghman in 1785, Washington also wrote to General Robert Ridgway, on September 12, 1783, a long and carefully expressed letter ordering wine and beer glasses, and decanters and china. “If a neat and complete set of Blue & white Table China could be had upon easy terms, be pleased to inform me of it, and the price—not less than six or eight doz., however, and proportionable number of deep and other Plates, Butter-Boats, Dishes & Tureens will suffice. These things sometimes come in complete Setts ready packed; should this be the case and the number of Pieces greater than what is here mentioned, I should have no objection to a case on that acc’t.” Washington had very decided opinions and tastes about table furnishings, as he had about dress. When wine was served to him and his visitors in some very ugly cups at Princeton, and he was told that the cups were made by a man who had since turned Quaker, he replied, with his cumbersome and rare humor, that it was a pity the man had not turned Quaker before he made the cups. The china of Mary Washington did not go to her illustrious son. By her will, made in 1788, she left to her grandson, Fielding Lewis, “half my crockery ware, half my pewter, and my blue and white tea china,” and to her granddaughter, Betty Carter, the other half of the crockery and pewter, and “my red and white china.” Perhaps she fancied the General had enough china, as he apparently did.