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Pair of Tea Canisters with Case

Pierre (Peter) Gillois

British, first mark entered 1754

Pair of Tea Canisters with Case

1769/70

These eighteenth-century British canisters are decorated with scenes of women playing stringed instruments or arranging flowers under parasols and pagoda canopies—details that refer to tea’s origins in the Far East. The two containers differ slightly in size. One of them may have been used to store sugar, an increasingly popular addition to tea as the century progressed. The mahogany case is fitted with a lock, demonstrating the high value placed on tea at the time.

Medium silver and mahogany
Dimensions Canister: 5 9/16 × 4 1/8 × 3 5/16 in. (14.1 × 10.5 × 8.4 cm); weight: 11.35 oz (321.9 g) Canister: 5 11/16 × 4 1/8 × 3 13/16 in. (14.4 × 10.5 × 9.7 cm); weight: 12.4 oz (351.5 g) Case: 7 1/2 × 9 3/8 × 5 3/4 in. (19.1 × 23.8 × 14.6 cm); weight: 12.4 oz (351.5 g)
Object Number 1978.15
Acquisition Gift of Henry Morris and Elizabeth H. Burrows, 1978
Status On View

Image Caption

Pierre (Peter) Gillois, Pair of Tea Canisters with Case, 1769/70, silver and mahogany. Clark Art Institute, gift of Henry Morris and Elizabeth H Burrows, 1978.15

Select Bibliography

Wees, Beth Carver. The Chinese Taste: European Visions of Cathay. Exhibition brochure. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1979. Wees, Beth Carver. English, Irish, and Scottish Silver at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1997.

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