3-035-636 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Still Life: Tea Set, about 1781-1783. In this painting of tea-time disarray, a tray is set with six cups and saucers, a teapot, sugar bowl, milk jug, and a lidded vase perhaps containing an extra supply of tea leaves. A large bowl holding a teacup and saucer could also be used for dumping the slops of cold tea and used tea leaves. By the time Liotard painted this work in the late 1700s, tea-drinking had become fashionable among the middle as well as the upper classes. Liotard contrasted the luxurious materials of Chinese porcelain and silver with a cheaper tray of painted tin, known as tôle, that imitated Asian lacquer.