Tea bowl
Label Text
Even as a bachelor, George Washington acquired choice furnishings which bespoke his gentility and position in Virginia society. He was at the height of elegance in serving tea in the "Compleat sett Fine Image China" that he received in 1757. Throughout the first half of the eighteenth century, Europeans preferred to take their tea in the Chinese fashion, sipping out of bowls rather than handled cups. Saucers, a European invention, held the hot bowl and provided a place for resting spoons.
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Datec. 1755
Geography
Made -
China
Medium/TechniquePorcelain (hard-paste), enamel, gilt
DimensionsOverall: 2 in. x 3 1/2 in. (5.08 cm x 8.89 cm)
Credit LineBequest of Margaret B. Smith, to the memory of Henrietta Elizabeth Smith, Grandniece of Martha Washington, Daughter of Commodore John Dandridge Henley, and Wife of J. Bayard H. Smith, Esq., 1910
Object numberW-131/G
DescriptionCircular bowl on a high, circular foot; exterior is decorated with overglaze polychrome enamel (famille rose) vignettes; in the reserve on one side, a Chinese man and woman stand in a garden near a building; in the continuation of the scene in the other reserve, one child lays on the ground while another stands next to a woman who is seated on a bench holding a pink fan, with a lake in the background; both vignettes are framed by underglaze blue flowers and scrollwork; the sides of the bowl between these vignettes are decorated with additional reserves of lakeside scenes in overglaze red enamel framed by underglaze blue flowers and scrollwork; rims and ground between scrollwork picked out in gilt; interior undecorated.Published ReferencesCadou, Carol Borchert. The George Washington Collection: Fine and Decorative Arts at Mount Vernon (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 2006), p. 29.
Detweiler, Susan Gray, "The Ceramics," Antiques 135, no. 2 (February 1989): 498, pl. II.
Detweiler, Susan Gray. George Washington's Chinaware (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1982), 24, 30-34, figs. 7-8.
Mount Vernon Ladies Association. The Mount Vernon China (Mount Vernon, VA: Mount Vernon Ladies Association, 1949), p. 39.
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