Chinese porcelain tea bowl with exterior floral motifs and interior landscape scene.

Chinese porcelain tea bowl with exterior floral motifs and interior landscape scene.

Chinese porcelain tea bowl

Early 18th century

Found during excavations by Winchester Museums Service Archaeology Section in a field just east of Wickham Square (opposite St Nicholas Church) in the mid- to late 1970s

This beautiful little bowl is very similar to another found in the backfill of a cess pit on the site of Wickham Manor House. Chinese tea cups had no handles and Chinese people did not use saucers, but potters made them for export. Sets of matching cups and saucers were made up by merchants from bulk purchases at East India Company auctions.

Chinese porcelain tea bowl with exterior floral motifs and interior landscape scene.