do   do   high round 2 Dessert Sugar bowls with covers 48 After Dinner Coffee Cups & Saucers 1 Large Dish for Fish   $1700

Records show that the china was brought to Washington by Harnden Express, as there is a voucher “For freight on 5 casks from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Washington, D.C., mkd Mrs. A. Lincoln $28.50. China from J. Kerr Phila. Pa. for dinner.” It is signed “J. K. Kerr” “Mrs. Lincoln” and is dated February 13, 1865.[10]

Two weeks later, on February 28, Kerr sent a bill for some additions to the service as follows:[11]

2	Dozen Coffee Cups & Saucers
	Delicate Buff Border & Gilt	20.00		40.00
4	Water pitchers   do    do	10.00		40.00
4	do  smaller    do    do	8.00		32.00
4	do      do   do    do	6.00		24.00
4	do      do   do    do	5.00		20.00
6	bowls     do    do	2.50		15.00
	Package			2.50
				173.50

Two months later President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. The china so recently ordered could hardly have been used by Mrs. Lincoln, and evidently payment had not been made, for it is recorded that at one of the first conferences which B. B. French, Commissioner of Public Buildings and Grounds, had with President Johnson in April 1865, he sought the President’s approval of payment for a purchase of china by Mrs. Lincoln.[12]