clay and ceramics

shelf 4

Like other commodities, ceramics traversed great distances along trade routes. While spices and silks traveled on camelback via the Silk Road, ships carried Chinese blue and white porcelains west to Europe and North America and east to Mexico and Europe. Trade spread ceramic processes, decorations, and related adaptations along the way.

 

Click an object to learn more

A vessel with a cylindrical bottom with a more bulbous top and a slightly flared out lip, it is glazed white and blue with abstract, purposeful and controlled decoration.

Mexico (Puebla)

Jar, 1700s

Earthenware with tin glaze, cobalt oxide, and glaze

Gift of Mrs. Davenport West 63.001.37

A completely white earthenware camel shaped teapot with a hexagonal lid.

English

Teapot, ca. 1760

Stoneware with salt glaze

Gift of Miss Alice Brownell, Mrs. Ernst R. Behrend and Alfred S. Brownell 29.180

A rectangular vessel with blue and white architectural, landscape, and floral decorations. The lid is circular and has floral decorations as well.

Jan van Duijn, designer, Dutch, active ca. 1760

De Porceleyne Schotel (The Porcelain Dish), manufacturer, Dutch, 1598–1791

Tea Caddy, ca. 1760

Earthenware with tin glaze, cobalt oxide, and glaze

Bequest of Susan Martin Allien 35.649 

A rectangular vessel that curves at the top with blue and white decorations depicting architectural, floral, and landscape elements. The lid is circular and has a delicate finial.

Chinese

Tea Caddy, ca. 1820

Porcelain with underglaze blue and glaze

Gift of William H. Claflin 1991.179.10