Set of Cups (Carabao Motifs)
Text
Tea pot with a Chinese view on a decorative panel. The lid's knop handle is a Chinese male figure holding up a tea brick. Part of a table service set (237767), National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, United States.
(Sandra Castro, 2021)
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Metadata
Creator
Fernando and Tomás Zamora
Date
1903
Identifier
237767
Origin
Manila, Philippines
Materials
The pieces have not been tested as to metal content but the Smithsonian identifies it as is silver or silver-plated and copper alloy. The local name for the material is “ tumbaga “ (silver-plate on a copper alloy). (Sandra Castro, 2021)
Physical Dimensions
12.5" x 9" x 4.75" (lid) 5.75" high
Provenance
Gifted to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History by then Secretary of War William Howard Taft in 1906. The tea pot is part of a 33-piece set crafted by Filipino silversmiths, Fernando and Tomás Zamora around 1903. The set was exhibited at the Louisiana Purchase and Lewis and Clark expositions before being purchased and then gifted to the NMNH by then Secretary of War William Howard Taft in 1906—three years before he was elected president.
Acquisition Date
1906
Related Object
Search for the rest of the 32-piece set by going through the object tour under Representing the Colony: The Zamora Table Service
Display status
Not on display. This was displayed at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (St. Louis, ·Missouri) in 1904 and at the Lewis and Clark Exposition (Portland, Oregon) held the following year. In 1906, the War Department of the United States purchased the set and displayed it a third time at the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition (Seattle, Washington) in 1909. (Sandro Castro, 2021)
Acknowledgements
Photo credit: Marisa Ventura Diaz-Etchevehere
Collection
Cite this Page
Fernando and Tomás Zamora, “Set of Cups (Carabao Motifs),” Mapping Philippine Material Culture, accessed April 19, 2024, https://philippinestudies.uk/mapping/items/show/4347.
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