A striking yellow-ground tea bowl and saucer from a service made for the very prominent Chew family of Philadelphia, decorated with classical style artefacts and figures in profile, all in the highly fashionable Greek-Revival style of the very early 19th century. It is very unusual to have a yellow ground as it was a difficult and costly thing to fire in the kiln. The Chews were a very wealthy China-trading family and their Philadelphia home and Germantown country house, Cliveden, were decorated in the latest and most stylish fashions. Illustrated and discussed in The Philadelphians and the China Trade, page 48. The saucer 5 1/2″ in diameter, the tea bowl 3 3/8″. Both in ‘as found’ condition with hairlines, otherwise good condition and rare decoration. Circa 1805.