Tea cup

Dateca. 1740

MediumTin-glazed earthenware (delft)

DimensionsD: 4 5/16"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1972-381,A

DescriptionBowl-shaped cup with low foot ring. Whitish tin glaze decorated in blue in the Chinese manner with a bird on a branch of a flowering spray.
Label TextThis bowl-shaped delft cup is the form from which tea was usually drunk in the eighteenth century. English porcelain examples sometimes had handles, but those in delft, like the original oriental tea bowls, did not. Although this handleless form now is usually referred to as a tea bowl, in eighteenth-century England and her colonies it was called a tea cup. Creamware pattern books indicate that by the end of the century, and probably throughout most of it, tea cups could be ordered with or without handles according to preference.

The absence of any glaze on the rim of this cup and its slightly squat shape suggest that the rim may have been ground down to remove chipping. The London attribution is based on the color of the glaze and the decoration.
InscribedNo
MarkingsNo
ProvenanceJellinek & Sampson Antiques, London