Tea casket (part of a set)

Containing two canisters for tea (green and black) and a larger one for sugar, this chest could be locked to secure its valuable contents; both tea and sugar were expensive commodities during the eighteenth century. The polychrome pastoral scenes and Italianate landscapes, combined with Rococo-style gilding against a pink ground, create an opulent effect.

Credit: Gift of Irwin Untermyer, 1964