This hexagonal teapot and cover with faintly moulded figures set within ogival panels on each side are probably the Eight Immortals. There is a single walking figure holding a branch, a pair of figures, a hunched figure carrying an object on his back, a figure carrying a stick and perhaps a bottle, a pair of figures of which one is a bearded elder, and a standing figure with large belly and hair in two knots. Coffee or tea pots of this type were exported to Europe sometime during the late 17th century. Tea had been introduced in small quantities to Europe by the Dutch East Indies Company since 1610 and by the 1640’s, it had become a fashionable beverage in Europe, both for medicinal as well as social purposes.Dehua, located on the southeast coast of Fujian province, is well known for its production of white porcelain, known to Europeans as 'blanc de Chine'. The earliest Dehua porcelain was produced as early as the 14th century but the production and quality of these porcelain peaked around the 17th and 18th centuries.
