coffee

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Coffeepots from England and America face each other, representing volatile trade relations between the two. Just before the Revolutionary War, America’s coffee consumption was soaring. At that time, the commodity was mainly imported from British-colonized Jamaica. When America gained independence, Britain prohibited the exportation of coffee on American vessels, which prompted savvy import merchants to quickly pivot to non-British suppliers including the French, successfully navigating an unpredictable Atlantic trade system.

 

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A tin coffee pot with painted orange, yellow, and green floral decorations.

American

Toleware Coffeepot, ca. 1825

Tin with paint

Museum Works of Art Fund 44.013

A brown sculptural creamer in the shape of a cow with horns. There is a small flat lid in the center of its back.

American (Bennington, Vermont)

Creamer, ca. 1850

Earthenware with glaze

Gift of Mrs. Gustav Radeke 20.1013

A teapot with a foot, spout, handle, and lid with a finial. The glaze is cream, orange, and brown, the body of the vessel has dripping symmetrically stripped glaze.

John Shorthose, English, 1768–1828

Mochaware Coffeepot, ca. 1820

Earthenware with slip decoration and glaze

Gift of Miss Alice Brownell, Mrs. Ernst R. Behrend and Alfred S. Brownell 29.188 

A tin-plated iron, black asphaltum, polychrom coffee pot. The decorations are yellow, white, and orange and abstract, floral, and swirled. The spout has a right angle and then a curve.

American

Toleware Coffeepot, ca. 1840

Tin with paint

Museum Works of Art Fund 44.014

 

 

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