Taking Tea

Date2018

Label TextThe female figure, the woman of the house, is engaged in the act of “taking tea,” steeped in luxury with an elaborate dress. The ship on top of her head serves as a reminder of the long voyage that brought not only fashionable porcelain but also the commodity of tea to her household. Through two shipwrecked sailors and an enslaved page, Partington exposes the degradation of human life and the reality of trades reliant on precarious ocean voyages and human exploitation. These figures reveal the human cost of the European craze for Chinese products.

Object number2019.6

ProvenanceCommissioned from the artist by Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 2018

Photo CreditPhoto: Natali Wiseman

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Claire Partington: Taking Tea, Dec. 7, 2018 - Dec. 6, 2020.

Credit LineGuendolen Carkeek Plestcheeff Endowment for the Decorative Arts

DimensionsOverall: variable

MediumWhite earthenware with white tin glaze, enamel, lustre, mixed media, limoges porcelain, glaze, red stoneware with white tin glaze and enamel, paper porcelain and celadon glaze