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Tea canister
Unknown - Enlarge image
Tea canister
- Place of origin:
Bristol, England (probably, made)
- Date:
ca. 1750-1760 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Unknown (production)
- Materials and Techniques:
Tin-glazed earthenware, painted in blue, with replacement metal cover
- Credit Line:
Mellor Bequest
- Museum number:
C.13-1963
- Gallery location:
British Galleries, room 52b, case 2
Object Type
Tea canisters, called caddies today, were containers for storing tea leaves. During the 18th century, tea was made in front of the family and guests in well-off households, not in the kitchen. Like other tea utensils, canisters are therefore often highly decorative. Initially an expensive luxury confined to the wealthy, tea became more widely drunk as prices fell during the 18th century. This gradual fall (hastened when import duties were drastically reduced in 1784) was reflected in the increasing size of these containers over the course of the century.
Decoration
The single most important influence on the decoration of English delftware was East Asian porcelain. From the early 17th century to the very end of the 18th, a succession of Chinese and Japanese painting styles and motifs were adopted by potters in England. Imports of Chinese porcelain during the 17th century provided prototypes that were copied more or less faithfully. But from around 1680, an English Chinoiserie style began to emerge, with pottery painters inventing their own simplifications, abstractions and patterns. As is the case with this tea canister, Chinese scenes and motifs were frequently combined with European ones without any sense of incongruity.
