Description:
Drinking tea in small groups as a social activity was important in expressing gentility and refinement in the 19th century. Toy tea sets were used to teach girls the ritual of brewing and serving tea to guests. The American Girl’s Home Book of Work and Play (1833) discussed “Make-Believe Housekeeping” and concludes, “The transition is an easy one from the make-believe to the real, and a child who has this training will never feel the terror of housekeeping that fills many a girl before marriage.” Child's miniature tea set, lady & child playing; molded tea set with 1 tea pot, 1 sugar bowl, 1 cream pot, 11 cups and 11 saucers, shape of pieces are in the "new oval" pattern dating it after about 1805 when that shape of tea pot was introduced; the body is made of a caramel/ tan-colored earthenware called drabware, each piece is onglaze transfer printed using the bat printing technique with red enamel; scenes depict a woman dressing in classical clothing on a klismos chair playing with a young child, a woman near a Grecian couch playing with a child, and a woman sitting with a basket of flowers, each piece is picked out in red enamel trim, the interiors of the cups have a white slip wash.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+62.177 |
