Spittoon with Floral Decoration
about 1740–17952 1/2 x 4 1/2 x 4 1/2 in. (6.35 x 11.43 x 11.43 cm)
Creation Place:
China
Medium:
Enamel on copper
Credit Line:
Bequest of Compton Allyn
Accession Number:
2014.1.57
Currently on View in:
Tiny Treasures (4)
Exhibition History
Cincinnati, Ohio. Taft Museum of Art. Eternal Blooms: Chinese Painted Enamels on Copper, March 2–June 24, 2018.Cincinnati, Ohio. Taft Museum of Art. In a New Light: Treasures from the Taft, July 3, 2021–May 1, 2022.
Gallery Label
In China, people used vessels shaped like this one for leftover tea leaves and other table waste. This spittoon, however, was probably intended for export to Europe, where such objects became popular with consumers of chewing tobacco—a product newly imported from the Americas. Though tobacco users were normally men, women also engaged in this fashionable practice, considered by some to be a more feminine alternative to smoking. This small, floral spittoon may have been intended for a woman.
Provenance
(Acquired by Roger Keverne Ltd., London); purchased by Compton Allyn [1925-2013], Cincinnati, OH, April 24, 2006; bequest to the Taft Museum of Art, Cincinnati, OH, June 26, 2014.
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