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Tea caddy: C.661 & A-1991

An image of Tea caddy

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Object information

Current Location: In storage

Maker(s)

Unknown

Entities

Categories

Description

Tea caddy and wooden cover. Hard-paste porcelain decorated in an enamel palette of iron-red, yellow, green, grey, blue and black. Rectangular caddy with straight sides resting on four feet. The front and back are decorated in famille verte enamels with Five precious things of the Library and other scholarly emblems (including a vase with a piece of coral and two peacock feathers showing it belonged to the official class) within a border of a single line painted in iron-red. The side panels are painted with rocks, flowers and butterflies. The shoulders bear bundles of books and scrolls.

Notes

History note: Purchased from Garabed, 14 May 1934, for £3.0s.0d; H.S. Reitlinger (d.1950); the Reitlinger Trust, Maidenhead, from which transferred in 1991.

Legal notes

Bequeathed by H.S. Reitlinger, 1950; transferred from the Reitlinger Trust, 1991.

Measurements and weight

Diameter: 14.2 cm
Height: 16.3 cm

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1950) by Reitlinger, Henry Scipio

Dating

Qing Dynasty
Kangxi Period (1662-1722)
17th Century-18th Century
Circa 1662 - 1722

Components of the work

Decoration composed of enamels ( famille verte)

Materials used in production

Hard-paste porcelain

Techniques used in production

Throwing : Hard-paste porcelain decorated in an enamel palette of green, iron-red, blue, yellow, black and grey enamels

Inscription or legends present

Inscription present: white, round, serrated

  • Text: 192
  • Method of creation: Inscribed
  • Type: Label

Inscription present: rectangular, brown

  • Text: No.416a
  • Method of creation: Inscribed
  • Type: Label

References and bibliographic entries

Identification numbers

Accession number: C.661 & A-1991
Primary reference Number: 21481
Old object number: CHICER/199
Stable URI

Audit data

Created: Saturday 6 August 2011 Updated: Monday 22 April 2024 Last processed: Wednesday 14 May 2025

Associated departments & institutions

Owner or interested party: The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department: Applied Arts

Citation for print

This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:

The Fitzwilliam Museum (2025) "Tea caddy" Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/21481 Accessed: 2025-12-05 18:19:56

Citation for Wikipedia

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{{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/21481 |title=Tea caddy |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2025-12-05 18:19:56|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

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