Tureen
A tureen is a serving dish for foods such as soups or stews, often shaped as a broad, deep, oval vessel with fixed handles and a low domed cover with a knob or handle. Over the centuries, tureens have appeared in many different forms: round, rectangular, or made into fanciful shapes such as animals or wildfowl. Tureens may be ceramic—either the glazed earthenware called faience, or porcelain—or silver, and customarily they stand on an undertray or platter made en suite.[i]
Etymology
The tureen as a piece of tableware called a pot à oille—a Catalan-Provençal soup—came into use in late seventeenth-century
History
The tureen's prehistory may be traced to the use of the
Silver tureens
Most seventeenth-century French silver tureens were melted down to finance the wars of Louis' late years and may be glimpsed only in paintings. The ornate silver tureens of that period figure in buffets—still life of silver and game—by artists such as
Eighteenth century
During the mid-eighteenth century, tureens in appropriate naturalistic shapes, such as tureens in the form of a head of cabbage, were popular. The
Écuelles and saucières
Tureens are most practical for serving about six people. In eighteenth-century France, a small individual covered standing bowl on a small platter, essentially an individual tureen, was called an écuelle (also anglicised to ecuelle). It could be lifted by its twin handles and drunk from directly. The shape was used for other purposes; it is often found in toilet services, where its purpose is uncertain. Its modern descendant in tableware is the two-handled cream soup bowl on matching plate. A small covered dish for sauce, called a saucière, could also take the form of a small tureen; it might be integral with its platter (illustration right), for ease in handling and to contain drips.[4][failed verification]
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Chinoiserie ecuelle (matching saucer not shown), France, Chantilly porcelain, c. 1735–1740, soft-paste porcelain
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Tureen, depicting a rabbit,Chelsea porcelain, England, porcelain with enamel
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A swan tureen,Chelsea porcelain, England
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ASèvres porcelain tureen, 1782, once owned by John and Abigail Adams
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Bicentennial Commemorative tureen painted with red, blue, and gold. Gift of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip of the United Kingdom, 1976
Collections
John T. Dorrance, a member of the family owners of
See also
Notes
- ^ "as part of a set"
References
- ^ The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English (Oxford 1995: 9th edition; ed. Thompson), p. 1503
- ^ "Soup tureen". Victoria & Albert Museum. October 31, 1760.
- ^ Art Institute of Chicago "Tureen in the Form of a Rabbit" (2023).
- ^ "Bibliothèque et documentation". Manufacture Nationaux de Sevres.
- ^ "Ceramics". Winterthur Museum. March 28, 2021.