Autumn 2016
Interview with a Collector
duction and global consumerism, the traditions and rituals of tea drinking have, unsurprisingly, declined. For most of us, tea is made by quickly and unceremoni- ously dunking a tea bag in a mug and adding milk from a carton. As a tea taster by trade, Mr Sethia is passion- ate about creating the finest teas and reviving the art of tea making and drinking. As a record of tea’s historic importance and its rich and diverse traditions, it is the aim of the Chitra Collection to inspire this revival of tea culture for future generations. The design and commissioning of innovative 21st century teapots for the collection also supports this mission.
How did the collection come about? The collection started in January 2011. I lost my dear wife in 2010; she inspired me and pushed me to go back into the tea business, by stating that I would be able to contribute to tea culture and heritage, and the art of tea. And as I was getting older and she was not very well […] she wanted to put me back to my first love – I started my career as a tea taster. So after I lost her, I thought I would try to honour her memory as an expression of gratitude. Everybody wants to make a building, a mon- ument, or give some money to a charity, but I decided to have a look at what is missing relating to tea. I didn’t find any museum that had a globally impor- tant collection relating to the art of tea: every museum had some great pieces, no doubt, but many of them were still in private households and, although they were coming out from time to time, they were going into the hands of dealers […] who would sometimes end up holding on to them for a long time. So I started
collecting, and now we have 1,500–1,600 pieces, out of which 200 pieces are awaiting confirmation of their authenticity.
What have you learned along the way? What surprised me is that time destroys what time creates. Many of the beautiful objects that were cre- ated at the height of tea culture [in the 18th century] got destroyed. Ships capsized and sank; porcelain went with them. So many beautiful objects were cre- ated in metal, but when the silver got tarnished and the patina got lost, they were thrown in the junkyard as scrap metal. So there was constant destruction of art relating to tea, but there was no new construction in later periods; the tea industry itself became the victim of false marketing by tea manufacturers or tea packers or brands.
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Bötterporcelain teapot, Meissen, Germany, 1718–25
Silver-gilt Empire-style tea service, Jean-Baptiste-Claude Odiot, France, 1815–19
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