Teapot with Cover
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Object Label
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.
Caption
Karl L. H. Müller American, born Germany, 1820–1887. Teapot with Cover, ca. 1876. Porcelain, Height: 6 3/4 in. (17.1 cm) Diameter of base: 6 x 3 in. (15.2 x 7.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Franklin Chace, 68.87.32a-b. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 68.87.32.jpg)
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Manufacturer
Designer
Title
Teapot with Cover
Date
ca. 1876
Geography
Place manufactured: Greenpoint, Brooklyn, New York, United States
Medium
Porcelain
Classification
Dimensions
Height: 6 3/4 in. (17.1 cm) Diameter of base: 6 x 3 in. (15.2 x 7.6 cm)
Signatures
no signature
Inscriptions
no inscriptions
Markings
Painted in red on bottom over glaze: "U.P.W." with an "S" below.
Credit Line
Gift of Franklin Chace
Accession Number
68.87.32a-b
Rights
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.
Frequent Art Questions
Would someone have owned this?
Yes. This tea set, made by Union Porcelain Works, would have been deemed an acceptable object to own by a well-to-do member of society in the 1870s. The imagery, which includes stereotypical faces of an Asian man and an African man, indicate the contents of each vessel, tea and sugar, would not have been seen as racist, although it is very much seen in that light today.Is there a reason that the finials are in the shape of human heads?
Yes, the little heads are intended to show the country of origin for each product. Because tea was imported from China, the head is Asian; the milk jug has the head of a goat, etc. The decoration is also a play on the name for this kind of set, which was made for two people and known as a "tête à tête" or "head to head" tea set.I have a question about the label. Instead of saying “despite the racism we would see, contemporaries would find it clever”, why not reverse those clauses to emphasize current understanding of the harmfulness of such imagery? I find myself wondering why this piece is on display.
The gallery you are in is titled "Nations Divided", which looks at issues of race, slavery, and the civil war in nineteenth century America. As for the structure of the label text, the clauses could certainly be switched, but the current arrangement makes the point that racial judgements were normalized in that period.Okay, I see how it works with the anti-discrimination piece to the left in the same case. Thank you.It's a complex period to represent, to be sure. Thank you for asking about this work.
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