EUROPEAN SUBJECTS AND ARMORIAL VARIOUS PROPERTIES
A BLUE AND WHITE 'TEA CULTIVATION' PLATE, depicting a scene of the process of sampling and packing tea for delivery to the tea stations, the centre showing laborers carrying baskets with leaves from the fields, a shell and cornucopia border of European origin encircling the rim (minute rim chips, rim polished), circa 1740

Details
A BLUE AND WHITE 'TEA CULTIVATION' PLATE, depicting a scene of the process of sampling and packing tea for delivery to the tea stations, the centre showing laborers carrying baskets with leaves from the fields, a shell and cornucopia border of European origin encircling the rim (minute rim chips, rim polished), circa 1740
23.2cm. diam.; painted with the number 10 on the base

Lot Essay

cf. For other examples and descriptions on the series, Howard & Ayers, China for the West, vol. 1 op.cit. pp. 214-215: "Two similar dishes in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, are numbered on the reverse 13 and 21. It is by no means certain that all this series is concerned with tea, for 13 shows two men making canisters from metal (possibly for tea) and 21 shows the packing of a substance which may be ginger. (Elihu Yale wrote to Joshua Edisburg at Erthig in 1682, of 'jars of mango atchar.' I begg you and your good Ladys acceptance of part in one fo the vessels fil'd with our best mango atchar.') On 21 the substance does not appear to be in leaf form but to consists of rounded 'fruits'. The numbers 21 and 23 lend support to this theory, because one would otherwise expect the process on 21 to come after that shown on 23. Two plates, nos. 11 & 12 and a tureen (no. 19) overdecorated in red in Holland are also known"
Other examples from the same series: two plates, no. 11 (carrying boxes) and no. 12 (cultivating tea) now Museum of the American China Trade, Milton Massachusetts, tureen no. 19, overdecorated in red in Holland, ibid; dishes numbered 13 and 21, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (le Corbeiller, Cat 42) tureen, dish and sauce-boat, Fries Museum, Leeuwarden (De Chinese porseleinkast, Amsterdam, 1968/9, Cat. 274)

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