Tea and Coffee Service for Twelve, in Its Original Presentation Case, c. 1788-1799
Imperial Manufactory, 1718-1864
Vienna, Austria
On display at the Gardiner Museum, Toronto, ON
Towards the end of the 17th century, Europe experienced a booming popularity of Chinese and Japanese porcelain. Seeking to copy the designs, countries all over Europe began producing their own versions of porcelain. In Austria, porcelain was on the rise, leading to the establishment of the Vienna Imperial Manufactory. It is here where Tea and Coffee Service for Twelve, in Its Original Presentation Case, was produced from 1788-1799. This tea set would have been made for the rich to engage in social activities (such as teatime) and is guessed to be a gift due to the gold dedication ‘L’AMITÉ RECONNOISSANTE’ (In Grateful Friendship) being embossed on it. There are 31 pieces and are meant to serve tea to 12 people. This tea set demonstrates features of the sublime and beautiful in the painting of its flowers. When examining one piece of this tea set, the looker sees a delicate collection of sweet, feministic flowers, otherwise known as ‘the beautiful’. On the other hand, when the looker examines the whole collection, there is an overwhelming presence of flowers staring out against a gold background, otherwise known as ‘the sublime’. It becomes harder to focus on a single flower due to the overwhelming numbers displayed before the eye. This can be compared to William Wordsworth’s crowd of dancing daffodils, which highlights the endless number of flowers, all working together as one gigantic mass. There is an impressive power and infinity in the number of flowers painted in which on their own, they are beautiful, but all together, they are overwhelming. This comes to represent the sublime and beautiful nature of this tea set. This tea set showed not only how people engaged together in the 18th century, but also another interpretation of the sublime and beautiful working together in art.
Key Words: Vienna/Austrian, porcelain, sublime, beautiful, social engagements.