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Tea caddy: C.1536-1928

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Object information

Current Location: Gallery 27 (Glaisher)

Maker(s)

Pottery: Unidentified Bristol pottery (Probably)

Entities

Categories

Description

Tin-glazed earthenware painted in blue

Buff earthenware, tin-glazed bluish-white on the visible surfaces, and painted in blue. Octagonal with two long sides, two short sides, protruding canted corners. The flat top has a central low cylindrical neck to take a cover, now missing. The top is decorated with four winged cupid's heads, and the two ends have standing Chinese figures. One side and its flanking corners is decorated wtih a Chinese pavilion, a rhubarb plant, and the inscription 'Rhubarb' above and to the left. The other side and its corners has a different Chinese pavilion and a tea shrub with 'The Tea/Shrub' inscribed under it.

Notes

History note: Sotheby's on 21 February 1905, lot 133; sold for £3.16s.0d. to Mr Hyam (of Hyam & Co. ?); bought from Hyam for £6.6s by Dr Dr J.W.L. Glaisher, FRS, Trinity College, Cambridge. Lent to the Fitzwilliam Museum in November 1909

Legal notes

Dr J.W.L. Glaisher Bequest

Measurements and weight

Height: 9 cm
Length: 9.4 cm
Width: 6.2 cm

Place(s) associated

  • Bristol ⪼ Somerset ⪼ England

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1928-12-07) by Glaisher, J. W. L., Dr

Dating

18th Century, third quarter#
George III
Circa 1760 CE - Circa 1770 CE

Note

The scenes on the sides were derived from illustrations in Johann Nieuhoff's 'An Embassy from the East India Company of the United Provinces to the Grand Tartar Cham, Emperor of China' (the tea plant), and the Appendix or Special remarks Taken at large out of Athanasius Kircher His Antiquities of China (the rhubarb plant), published in London by John Ogilby in 1669.

School or Style

Chinoiserie

Components of the work

Decoration composed of high-temperature colour ( blue from cobalt)
Visible Surfaces composed of tin-glaze ( bluish-white)

Materials used in production

buff Earthenware

Inscription or legends present

  • Text: Rhubarb
  • Location: On one side
  • Method of creation: Painted in blue
  • Type: Inscription
  • Text: The Tea/Shrub.
  • Location: On one side
  • Method of creation: Painted in blue
  • Type: Inscription

References and bibliographic entries

Identification numbers

Accession number: C.1536-1928
Primary reference Number: 72180
Old object number: 2304
Stable URI

Audit data

Created: Saturday 6 August 2011 Updated: Friday 11 August 2017 Last processed: Friday 16 February 2024

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 (2024) "Tea caddy" Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/72180 Accessed: 2024-04-19 12:22:42

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{{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/72180 |title=Tea caddy |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-04-19 12:22:42|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

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