55th Annual Delaware Show

A pastoral scene filled with animal-shape tureens, from geese and a swan to a turtle and rabbits, shows how nature truly had a place on past dinner tables. At meals, such wares might have been set among vases of garden flowers and accompanied by plates and dishes in other naturalistic shapes and patterns (fig. 7). Leaving the Western design gallery, guests enter the world of nature designs in Asian styles, especially those from China and Japan. Imagine steam billowing from the nostrils of the huge water buffalo-head tureen that once held soups or stews; delight in the Chinese pavilion with plates and dishes decorated with richly robed “mandarins” in flower-filled gardens; and consider the fish- and deer-pattern wares that carry meanings different from those in the Western world (fig. 8). Fig. 7. Bird, animal, and flower-shaped dishes and tureens could be found in China and Europe in the 1700s and 1800s. Fig. 8. Nature as seen in Asian artistic styles fills this gallery. — 40 —

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