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Teapot

A work made of hard-paste porcelain with polychrome enamels and gilding.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of hard-paste porcelain with polychrome enamels and gilding.

Date:

1723/24

Artist:

Meissen Porcelain Manufactory (German, founded 1710)
Painted in the style of Johann Gregorius Höroldt (German, 1696–1775)
Germany, Meissen

About this artwork

The Meissen Porcelain Manufactory was established in 1710 at Meissen, near Dresden in Germany. It was the first European factory to succeed in making hard-paste porcelain like that imported from China and Japan. From the 1720s, the chief painter at Meissen was Johann Gregorius Höroldt (1696–1775), who developed techniques to make the porcelain ground whiter, to better show off the range of enamel colors he introduced: greens, yellow, purples, and browns.

18th-century Europeans loved porcelain not only for its dazzling beauty, but also because it holds heat well, a useful feature in this period, when beverages like tea, coffee, and hot chocolate had become extremely fashionable. The scenes on this teapot are examples of chinoiserie, the imaginative Western interpretation of Chinese figures and motifs. Here, some Chinese men attract and play with birds, and two others engage in a tea ceremony, a witty reference to the function of the teapot. The lid, shaped like a Chinese temple bell, is decorated with Indianische Blumen (Indian flowers), a popular motif on German porcelain. This motif was actually Japanese in origin, an indication of how confused Westerners could be about Asian cultures at the time.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Applied Arts of Europe

Artist

Meissen Porcelain Manufactory (Manufacturer)

Title

Teapot

Place

Meissen (Object made in)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1723–1724

Medium

Hard-paste porcelain with polychrome enamels and gilding

Dimensions

12 × 17 × 12 cm (4 11/16 × 6 11/16 × 4 11/16 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Mrs. Edgar J. Uihlein through the Antiquarian Society

Reference Number

1991.1a-b

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/117267/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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