Museum number
S442A.1
S442A.2
Object
Tea bowl and saucer, one of a pair, silver, Mark Paillet, London, 1700/01
Description
Tea bowl, one of a set of two bowls and saucers, Silver, 1700.The bowl fluted with scalloped edge in the manner of Chinese porcelain tea bowls.
Materials
Silver
Inscription
One saucer PA with mullet and crown above, for Mark Paillet (Active c 1695 - 1714, a Huguenot apprenticed to Thomas Symonds.
On display?
Yes

Further description

Simple name
cup
saucer
Subject
Decorative
Dimensions
regular: 5.4cm (w)
Tea bowl and saucer Mark Paillet (active about 1695–1714), London Silver, 1700/1701 S442 Presented by the Holburne Society, 1933 Tea is our National Drink. It’s drunk by everyone. In the eighteenth century it was an expensive luxury. To drink it was to make a statement about how rich and fashionable you were. It was responsibility of the mistress of the house to make and serve the tea. She held the key for the tea chest. Green tea was initially preferred but by the 1720s, cheaper black tea had become more popular. Boiling water was supplied from a tea kettle. The shape of the silver tea bowl and saucer (S442) is derived from imported Chinese porcelain examples (C951). Silver tea bowls were only fashionable for a short time because they literally became too hot to handle. The fluted basin (S27) was for used tea leaves or ‘slops’. These were taken by the servants as a ‘perk’, dried and reused or sold.

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