teabowl & saucer

Johan Daniel Rehshuh

Summary

Public: Tea bowl and saucer, hard paste porcelain, iron red, purple, blue, green, yellow, brown and black chinoiserie scenes with gilt cartouches, scrollwork and floral spray inside bowl. Private: Hard paste porcelain, tea bowl and flat, circular saucer with everted rims and narrow footrings, painted in iron red, purple, blue, green, yellow, brown and black enamel colours with chinoiserie scenes in shaped cartouches of mother-of-pearl (Perlmutter) lustre and gilt, surrounded by scrollwork in iron red, with a border of lambrequins in gilt on saucer and inside rim of bowl. A spray of stylised floweres (indianische Blumen) inside the bow. Three concentric circles in red enamel on base of saucer.

Display Label

Social Ritual Afternoon tea, or dinner with friends and family, going out for a coffee, or having a drink in the pub are just a few of the social rituals enjoyed by many. Some rituals have survived through the centuries, or been adapted to suit our ever-changing society, whilst others have been lost in the mists of time. Different cultures have their own social rituals. Although sometimes seen as strange and exotic, they often inspire other countries to adopt them. Food, drink and the rituals associated with them, once new, expensive or for the elite, are now taken for granted and part of everyday life. The objects on display reflect some of those rituals; where they came from and how they have changed, those that have survived and those that were lost. They each tell a story about a time and a place, the people from the past and society today.