This coffee pot features a bamboo form handle and spout, a lobed base with a gilt-gold finial. The body is decorated with multiple chased panels depicting pavilions, foliage and alternating court and martial scenes. The gilt finial features an openwork flower design, which is continued in repoussé on the lid and in many of the panels. Each panel design is set against a ring-mat background. There is a key fret pattern on the shoulder of the pot, a motif used widely in early Hellenistic and Shang art and often found on export silver from the 18th and 19th centuries. This execution of the decoration indicates that this is an 18th century example in the Chinese style produced for western markets, possibly Holland. Coffee pots or ewers are presently known more than any other form of Chinese export silver. Many of these tall vessels, particularly earlier examples, were undoubtedly used to serve both tea and coffee.
