Day 219 - Tea and teapots

 October 19, 2020

Gallery 510 is all about tea. A sign at the entrance to the gallery describes the central role of the commodity (along with coffee, cocoa, and sugar) in driving 18th century commerce, the increasingly widespread consumption of the beverage among the middle classes as well as the elite, and  the way in which tea consumption acted as a spur to artistic creativity on the part of the British ceramics industry. Inevitably, the signage refers, too, to slavery and its inextricable link to the production of sugar. 

At the center of the dimly lit room are two semicircles of tall, thin, brightly illuminated display cases on which scores of teapots are arranged.  Each display case is nine levels high, which means that the highest pots can't really be seen, while the lowest ones require that the viewer stoop down in order to to examine them carefully.  I hope the pots' positions are rotated from time to time. Once again, this room seems to be designed to dazzle the casual viewer rather than to encourage close viewing (dare I say connoisseurship?). There are no captions near the objects describing their provenance and dates. I think there's a handout that serves this function, but it's unavailable in these Covid times.

The teapots are impressive in the variety of their materials (mostly porcelain but also silver and pewter), their sizes (from dollhouse size to quite large), their shapes, and their ornamentation.  While most are round,  some are square, hexagonal, or rectangular, made to look  like buildings. Two take the form of elephants whose trunks function as spouts; howdahs on top serve as the vessels' lids. One is shaped like a camel, although I have to say that the relevance of this animal to the tea trade is obscure to me. (Did caravans carry tea across the deserts and mountains?)  Some are painted with Oriental-looking designs;  others are made of porcelain that has been carved or otherwise modeled into leaves and other forms. One pot, manufactured for the American market, depicts George Washington on one side and Martha Washington on the other. Presumably made after the American Revolution, the pot demonstrates that the British were more interested in marketing their wares to citizens of the new country than in holding grudges against a former enemy. A few pots and tea sets  are very simple white porcelain, with no design at all,  and look strikingly modern. One such set reminds me of the coffee set that I inherited from Mother, which she bought in Italy in 1961 or 1962 (at Richard-Ginori?) but I think is Bohemian.

A couple of favorites stand out. One is a small blue and white teapot, perhaps  6 inches  high on its four little legs. Its sides are carved to resemble a seashell, while the spout looks a bit like a serpent's mouth.  The second pot is much larger (10 inches  high, perhaps?) and round. Its spout seems  a bit ungainly, but I like the fresh floral design, delicately painted in shades of rose, blue, green, and yellow. I wonder how many cups of tea it holds - enough for my high tea friends and me to have seconds, I'm sure, except that we generally all opt for different teas!