Tea bowl and saucer with Martin Luther

China, Jingdezhen, around 1746
Porcelain
Asian Civilisations Museum

Martin Luther (1483–1546), a German theologian, is best known for leading the Protestant Reformation of the Christian church in 1517. His revolutionary actions resulted in the division of western Christianity between Roman Catholicism and the new Protestant traditions.

This tea bowl and saucer comes from a set that stylistically dates to the middle of the 18th century, and so may have been commissioned for the bicentenary of Luther’s death in 1746.