Tea canister - With Esterházy pattern

The hexagonal, prismatic body stands on six feet that reach down on the corners. Two confronting sides show a Chinese grass-motif, enriched with a flowery stem in the middle. The other sides are decorated with two lines of Chinese characters. The cap repeats the main decoration - white against a red background - in smaller size. Ilona Ruzicska describes the technique and possible origin of the Esterházy - pattern in her book entitled A herendi porcelán (Budapest, Royal Hungarian Pázmány Péter University, Department of Art History and Christian Archaeology, No.51, 1938, p.46). The pattern was named after the great patron and customer of the Herend china works, the family of Count Esterházy. On the basis of objects in the collection of the Budapest Museum of Applied Arts, the ornamental dishes with the original tomato red background were produced for their castle at Pápa. Ilona Ruzicska also mentions that later green, black and yellow backgrounds were also used.