Coffee cup (Chocolate cup)

Museum Object Number 1952.0208.003

Object Name

Coffee cup (Chocolate cup)

Category

Ceramics

Credit Line/Donor

Museum purchase

Place of Origin

United Kingdom, Europe

Date

1775-1800

Subjects

Chinoiserie

Materials

Earthenware (pearlware); Lead glaze

Techniques

Thrown, Extruded, Painted

Dimensions (inches)

2.6 (H) , 3.3 (L) , 2.4 (Diam)

Dimensions (centimeters)

6.6 (H) , 8.3 (L) , 6.1 (Diam)

Object Description

Web - 03/04/2025

In the vein of “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” many ceramics manufacturers over the centuries have attempted to imitate in less pricey ceramics more costly wares including porcelain. Among these imitations is a pale-bodied earthenware featuring a bluish lead glaze and commonly known as pearlware. The name derived from “pearl white” ware, a type of pottery from Josiah Wedgwood’s Staffordshire, England, factory. Though Wedgwood first brought pearl white ware to market in the late 1770s, other manufacturers appear to have been producing versions of it already, under the name “china glaze.” The term China, in the 1700s, commonly referred to much-prized Chinese export porcelain though as the century progressed European manufacturers also produced a broad range of fine wares. Porcelain from both continents would be imitated in pearlware made at numerous factories in Staffordshire and other English counties. On this coffee- or chocolate cup, underglaze blue-painted Chinese porcelain-inspired designs include a pavilion (or pagoda), fences and willows. Similar patterns are found on pearlware beverage- and dinnerware excavated at numerous archaeological sites associated with Colonial America. Leslie Grigsby, discusses such archaeological evidence in “British Earthenware and Porcelain in Eighteenth Century America” (see References). She writes, “Blue-painted pearlware and, to a lesser extent, creamware with chinoiserie pagoda or pavilion-in landscape motifs, were popular in America during the last quarter of the eighteenth century. Excavated examples are of the same types as those produced for British markets and include dinner, tea and coffee and alcoholic beverage ware from house and tavern sites up and down the East Coast. Several saucers and cups of this type were excavated at the Richard Shortridge House site, up in Portsmouth, New Hampshire; a pearlware punch bowl was unearthed at McKnight's Tavern and a mug and tea bowl of were unearthed at Arell's Tavern, in Alexandria, Virginia.“

Bibliography and Bibliographic Notes

[Article] Grigsby, Leslie B. 2005 British Earthenware and Porcelain in Eighteenth Century America, in Gray, Jonathan. 2005. Welsh Ceramics in Context. 2. 71-91.
• Discussion of blue and white pearlware in early America: p. 82, no. 4.14.
[Book] 1984 Unearthing New England's Past: The Ceramic Evidence.
• Excavated blue and white pearlware mug with Chinese pavilion in landscape with fence motif: p. 80, no. 228, unearthed at Hart-Shortridge site, Portsmouth, NH.
[Manuscript] Findlen, Suzanne Rae. "Taste and Choice in Early Portsmouth New Hampshire as Seen Through Ceramic Archaeological Evidence, 1700-1800" (MA thesis).
• Excavated blue and white pearlware beverageware with Chinese pavilion in landscape with fence motif: pp. 175, Richard SHortridge site, Portsmouth, NH