Skip Navigation

Tray

Decorative Arts and Design

The motifs on this tea set are representations of race from the nineteenth century, a time when stereotypical racial images circulated heavily in popular culture and were rarely questioned.

The imagery was intended to symbolize the labor required for the contents of each vessel, including an enslaved African sugarcane picker for the sugar bowl, an Asian man for the teapot, and a goat for the cream pitcher. These objects speak to the exploitative nature of the relationship between white Americans and African descendants and Asian peoples under colonial regimes.
MEDIUM Porcelain
DATES ca. 1867
DIMENSIONS 1 1/4 x 16 1/4 x 16 1/4 in. (3.2 x 41.3 x 41.3 cm)  (show scale)
MARKINGS Painted in black on underside: "U.P.W. / S"
ACCESSION NUMBER 1998.21.1
CREDIT LINE Marie Bernice Bitzer Fund
CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION Porcelain tray with polychrome decoration. Round, flat bottom with upturned, convex rim. Inside covered with rust-colored ground, medallions containing naturalistically painted nature scenes, vines with leaves and flowers encircle the medallions. Decorations on bottom of tray: large circular medallion in center contains two deer (or antelope) on grassy outcropping, one grazing the other raises its head to confront two flying birds. Six smaller oval medallions around edge, containing (clockwise from top): weasel and monkey; two fighting ducks; two deer locking antlers; large gray bird (ostrich?) with ruffled feathers surrounded by flying birds; reclining boar and an unidentifiable animal; and swimming waterfowl spreading wings over her chicks. Rim decorated with six diamond-shaped medallions alternating with dragons; medallions contain single bird on a branch or an animal (fox or weasel). Condition: Good.
EXHIBITIONS
MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
CAPTION Karl L. H. Müller (American, born Germany, 1820-1887). Tray, ca. 1867. Porcelain, 1 1/4 x 16 1/4 x 16 1/4 in. (3.2 x 41.3 x 41.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Marie Bernice Bitzer Fund, 1998.21.1. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 1998.21.1_bw.jpg)
IMAGE overall, 1998.21.1_bw.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
"CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.
RIGHTS STATEMENT Creative Commons-BY
You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
RECORD COMPLETENESS
Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.