Interview with a Collector
What do you mean by ‘false marketing’? They were trying to decorate the packaging beautifully while picking up the cheapest quality teas, and they were packing them without any desire to promote tea culture and its history, or to teach people about this history.
What are some of the highlights of your collection? We have pieces by the important silversmiths Ben- jamin Smith and Paul Storr who epitomise 18th- and 19th- century workmanship. I don’t think the 15th and 16th centuries produced such magnificent objects, be- cause that was the time tea was just being introduced into the European market. It was the Portuguese who introduced tea, because of cross trade, so they were buying tea and silk, and selling steel and metal and oth- er European products.
What will be on display at LAPADA? It’s a decision being taken by the director of the Chitra Collection, Aneta Aslakhanova, and the curators, Dr Olivia Fryman and Amber Turner. I hope that they will choose works from my collection that the world has not seen before, pieces which show not only traces of antiquity, but which also reveal our contribution to tea culture. At the height of European tea culture, emper- ors, kings and queens were using objects made of gold only very rarely – works were made predominantly in silver before the trend for ceramics arrived. In fact, I have designed some teapots myself and
have tried to decorate them with diamonds and other jewels, including rubies and emeralds. I wanted to make something different – beautiful superfine tea de- serves an equally beautiful container.
Why is tea so important? Museums are a vast ocean of antiquity and history. But tea was never of interest to any museum: they were more interested in big pieces – in sculpture for ex- ample. Tea lost its status in the 20th century. Yet tea is historically very important: it is because of tea that the British Raj was in India; it is because of tea that the British lost America. But the 20th century approach was: ‘Just drink tea. Put some milk in it.’ The 1950s,
Autumn 2016
’60s, and ’70s saw very poor quality tea infiltrate the market. At that time, manufacturers started making infusions and calling it tea – using, for example, rose petals, peppermint, dried apples, plums, strawberries, and raspberries. But that’s not tea. […] Tea has lost its true significance.
The exhibition of the Chitra Collection at LAPADA this year is the first UK display of Mr Sethia’s unique collection. Showcasing some of the finest and most historically significant pieces from the collection, the exhibition will chart the history of tea through four themes: the origins of tea in China and Japan, the arrival of tea in Europe, tea and the empire and global tea culture. The objects chosen not only reflect the historical importance of tea, they also shed light on the diverse ways in which this drink has been appreciated and the place of teawares in the evolution of design and craftsmanship.
This interview is printed by kind permission of Apollo, and appears in its September 2016 issue.
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Silver tea set, Kashmir, India, 1880
Silver parcel-gilt and niello tea caddy, 9th Artel, Russia, 1908-1917
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