Introduced into Europe during the 17th century, tea drinking was a popular custom by the middle of the 18th century. Tea, spices, silks, and porcelain made up most of the cargoes of the sailing ships of the Dutch, English, Danish, Swedish, and Portugese East India Companies. Wealthy Europeans demanded more varied and colorful tea wares than the familiar blue and white Canton. The Reves Collection has a group of unusual teapots which indicate how China responded to this increasingly sophisticated taste.

This teapot is of traditional Chinese shape with sloping, swelling sides and a domed lid. It has applied leaves, twigs, and squirrels in iron-red, green, and gold.

Adapted from

Dallas Museum of Art, The Wendy and Emery Reves Collection (Dallas, Texas: Dallas Museum of Art, 1985), 201.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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