Tea Cup

Maker Unknown, Chinese

Collections

ClassificationsDECORATIVE ARTS

Dateca. 1800

Mediumporcelain

Dimensions1 7/8 × 3 × 3 in. (4.8 × 7.6 × 7.6 cm.)

Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Gail-Oxford Collection

Status

Not on view

Label TextServing and drinking tea at home became enormously popular in America after the middle of the 18th century. Like the tea, itself, many of the implements, dishes, and pots, used were imported from China or influenced by forms brought to America through trade with the East.

Tea tables first appeared in household inventories in Boston in 1706. Relatively small, they were finished on all four sides so they could be placed in the center of a room and easily moved when not in use. With its graceful cabriole legs and elegantly elongated slipper feet, this piece is typical of tea tables produced in Newport in the mid-18th century.

Object number2017.5.5.7