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Sugar bowl and cover
Royal Worcester - Enlarge image
Sugar bowl and cover
- Place of origin:
Worcester, England (made)
- Date:
ca. 1770-1775 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Royal Worcester (maker)
- Materials and Techniques:
Porcelain, transfer-printed in black enamel
- Credit Line:
Transferred from the Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn Street
- Museum number:
3218&A-1901
- Gallery location:
Ceramics Study Galleries, Britain & Europe, room 139, case 5, shelf 3
A sugar bowl formed an essential part of English tea services from the 1700s. Tea began to be imported into Britain from the middle of the 17th century but remained a luxury item until import duties were abolished in 1784. English tea drinkers differed from their Chinese counterparts by preferring to drink tea hot with milk and sugar, the latter becoming increasingly available through West Indies sugar plantations which relied on the labour of African slaves.
‘The Tea Party’ engraving by Robert Hancock, which appears on this sugar bowl, is one of the most popular designs to have been used on 18th century English ceramics. It shows a couple drinking tea in a garden, often attended by a young black male servant who holds a kettle of hot water. A scene of a ‘Maid and Page’ on the side of the bowl shows a black boy carrying a kettle. About 10,000 Africans are estimated to have been living in 18th century England, most working as, often unpaid, domestic staff. For their affluent owners these African servants were status symbols who offered ‘exotic associations’ like the new beverage, tea.
