Rolling and Sieving
1800
paint
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
1800
paint
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
Rolling and Sieving is a 1800 paint by Unknown, a Romanticism work, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.
This painting shows men rolling tea leaves on long tables and a woman shaking a flat sieve over a basket. The men’s hands press the leaves into neat piles while the woman’s arms move in a steady rhythm. Before 1750, China was the only place in the world that grew tea. European traders and collectors wanted to see how tea was made, so artists painted scenes like this one to sell to curious buyers. Look for the same quiet detail in paintings of Dutch interiors at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
The rectangular watercolor painting from around 1800 depicts figures engaged in the tea production process, showing men rolling tea leaves and a woman sieving them. Rendered in muted browns and greys, it is part of a twelve-work series illustrating the Chinese tea industry. The set was created for European audiences curious about tea cultivation and processing during a period when China supplied tea globally. The work entered a collection in 1894 through a gift from Mrs. L. MacKenzie.
Read the full account in the museum source.
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