Dish with a scene of tea cultivation (one of a pair)
Unknown
ca. 1740–45 · Hard-paste porcelain painted with cobalt blue under transparent glaze (Jingdezhen ware) · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
One of a pair of dishes belonged to a table service decorated with scenes of the cultivation of tea. This one depicts rattan being applied to the outside of a container, while on the right a man is packing tea by stomping it down. These cylindrical containers were used to transport the tea to Canton, where it was repacked in metal-lined wooden chests for shipment to Europe and elsewhere. Chinese potters' borrowing of French pottery motifs for the border design speaks to the stylistic cross-currents enabled by the extensive trade in the eighteenth century.
- Artist
- Unknown
- Date
- ca. 1740–45
- Medium
- Hard-paste porcelain painted with cobalt blue under transparent glaze (Jingdezhen ware)
- Culture
- Chinese, for European, probably Dutch, market
- Department
- European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
- Credit line
- Helena Woolworth McCann Collection, Purchase, Winfield Foundation Gift, 1971
