We are fortunate enough to have this fine Chinese export porcelain sauce tureen and undertray from a bespoke dinner service made for the American market, each piece bearing a central shield with gilded initials GC for George Crowninshield of Salem, Massachusetts and edged with an overglaze blue enameled grapevine border with gilded detail, the design most likely after English patterns of the period. The Crowninshields’ importance to Salem cannot be overstated, they owned one of the three major wharves in the port city and they helped turn it into one of the major trading centers of New England and America’s new republic and in the they process became enormously wealthy. George Crowninshield  (1733-1815) founded Crowninshield & Sons shipping business, one son later served as Secretary of the Navy, another was a Congressman, and a third, George Jr. built and sailed America’s first yacht, christened Cleopatra’s Barge across the Atlantic. The oval undertray measuring 8″, the tureen 7 1/2″ and the height of both 6 1/2″. In good condition, circa 1800.