Tea Canister

Joseph Smith American

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 723

This earthenware tea canister is one of the earliest known dated examples of American pottery. Although decorated in the Pennsylvanian German decorative technique of sgraffito, it displays the potter's attempt at emulating the fashionable English, salt-glazed, stoneware tea caddies of the 1740s and 1750s. This redware caddy, however, is much larger than its English prototype and the naive design of the tea plant bears little resemblance to that of the English salt-glazed original.

Tea Canister, Joseph Smith , active 1760s, Earthenware; Redware, American

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Tea Canister, Joseph Smith , active 1760s, Earthenware; Redware, American
Tea Canister, Joseph Smith , active 1760s, Earthenware; Redware, American
Tea Canister, Joseph Smith , active 1760s, Earthenware; Redware, American
Tea Canister, Joseph Smith , active 1760s, Earthenware; Redware, American

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