Morris and Daniel Parker. These men were eager to join their European counterparts in the lucrative trade with China. Among the commodities Shaw planned to acquire in Canton—including tea, silk, lacquer ware and ivory—was a significant cargo of porcelain, and in particular, “something emblematic of the institution of the order of the Cincinnati executed upon a set of porcelain.”

Shaw carried with him on the voyage one of L’Enfant’s watercolor drawings of the Society insignia and several other graphics to inspire the design for the Society porcelain. Without any formal direction or commissions from the Society’s leaders, Shaw conceived of an elaborate grouping of figures to celebrate the organization’s founding and ideals: “My idea was to have the American Cincinnatus, under the conduct of Minerva, regarding Fame, who, having received from them the emblems of the order, was proclaiming it to the world. For this purpose I procured two separate engravings of the goddesses, an elegant figure of a military man, and furnished the painter with a copy of the emblems, which I had in my possession.” But the design had to be simplified, as Shaw found that the Chinese enameller “was unable to combine the figures with the least propriety … I could therefore have my wishes gratified only in part.” The Society porcelain would ultimately bear only the winged figure of Fame and the Eagle insignia suspended from a blue-and-white ribbon held in her left arm.