Tea bowl

Union Porcelain Works|Karl L. H. Müller

ca. 1876 · Porcelain · The American Wing

Made as a prototype for a porcelain service exhibited at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition, this tea set depicts troubling imagery on the finials of the teapot and sugar bowl in the form of heads of an Asian and a Black man. While designer Karl Muller’s intent was undoubtedly to present well-known iconography for tea and sugar—a goat is also depicted on the handle of the creamer—the representations reveal the pervasiveness of racist thought in 19th-century America. The Black head also underscores how the commodity of sugar was inextricably linked to the exploitation of enslaved labor, especially in the Atlantic World.

Artist

Union Porcelain Works|Karl L. H. Müller

Date

ca. 1876

Medium

Porcelain

Culture

American

Department

The American Wing

Credit line

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Franklin Chace, 1969