Chinese Export Porcelain

Items

• Dish with a scene of tea cultivation (one of a pair)
  These dishes belonged to a table service decorated with scenes of the cultivation of tea. The upper dish illustrates the production of metal containers for transporting tea. The lower one depicts rattan being applied to the outside of a container, while on the right a man is packing tea by stomping it down. These cylindrical containers were used to transport the tea to Canton, where it was repacked in metal-lined wooden chests for shipment to Europe and elsewhere. Chinese potters' borrowing of French pottery motifs for the border design speaks to the stylistic cross-currents enabled by the extensive trade in the eighteenth century.