Tea Cup

1908

Tea Cup, 1908. House of Fabergé (Russian, 1842–1918). Glass; handle: 7.6 cm (3 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of the Hiller-Borneman Collection 2021.157.b Fabergé drew upon different historical styles and applied them to the same object type with a consistently high level of finesse. The holder for this tea glass incorporates a range of classicizing ornamental designs from the turn of the nineteenth century, such as the Greek key pattern on the horizontal bands and the intermittent palmettes. In Russia, tea has been served in glasses since the eighteenth century.