Teacup
Date1750-1770
OriginEngland, Staffordshire
MediumStoneware, salt-glazed, white with blue
DimensionsOverall: 1 1/2 x 3 1/4 x 3 1/16in. (3.8 x 8.3 x 7.8cm)
Credit LineMuseum Purchase, Wesley and Elise H. Wright in memory of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Clay Hofheimer II and in honor of John C. Austin
Object number2006-56
DescriptionHemispherical teacup without handle resting on a foot ring. Ornamented with incised flowers, one on each side of the cup, filled with blue in the technique commonly referred to as scratch blue decoration.Label TextIn contrast to the paucity of evidence for slip-cast accoutrements for the American tea table, there is ample proof of scratch blue tea wares. Relatively rare today as above-ground survivals, teapots, cups, saucers, cream pots, and sugar dishes have been found in archaeological deposits dating from the 1750s to the 1770s. Benjamin Franklin’s neighbors at 314 Market Street in Philadelphia were among the many colonists who owned a floral-patterned scratch blue teapot. The Geddy site in Williamsburg also yielded evidence of a wheel-thrown globular teapot enhanced with blue. Most surprisingly, a scratch blue teapot and cups were excavated at the site of the Ephrata Cloister (36LALA981), home to a Pietist religious community established in Ephrata, Pennsylvania, by German immigrant Conrad Beissel. The discovery of these tea wares among other dietary evidence has challenged the view that this strict community eschewed “worldly ways."
ProvenanceJill Fenichell, Brooklyn, NY
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