The Ceylonese Tea-Plucker in Art
From Mystic Tea Room
On this page i am developing a gallery of images on vintage postcards and advertising ephemera that feature women plucking tea in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). Stay tuned for more art, photos, postcards, advertisements, and socio-political theorizing about this trope in commercial tea leaf art.
The Salada Tea Plucker, Ceylon, postcard front, 1930s. This photo became the avatar image for Salada Tea for many years. Printed on postcards, reversed and redrawn in pen-and-ink, and rendered in colour for package labels, her image was the one that started me on the quest to find more tea-pluckers in art. Her name is unknown. The photographer is unknown.
"Tea Plucking by Tamil Cooly Woman, Ceylon", postcard front, 1910s. "Cooly" is an unusual spelling of "coolie," an archaic word derived from the mid 17th century Hindi and Telugu word kuli, meaning "day laborer," and probably associated with the Urdu word ḳuli, meaning "slave." Ceylon is now Sri Lanka. This photo seems odd, as the woman poses in a stand of palms, not tea bushes.
Tea Girl Safety Matches, Made in India, match box cover label, circa 1960s. This woman is not from Ceylon. She carries her plucking bucket on her hip. AMCO is the Associated Match Company Ltd.
Tea Plucker, Ceylon (Sri Lanka): One woman, postcard front, 1920s.
Tea Plucker, Ceylon (Sri Lanka): Two women, postcard front, 1920s.
Tea Pluckers, Ceylon (Sri Lanka): Three women, postcard front, 1920s.
The Tea Bush and Tea Pluckers at Work, postcard front, 1920s.
Ceylon (Sri Lanka) Tea Pluckers, chrome era, cica 1960s, postcard front.
Tea Pluckers at Work; seventeen women plucking tea with a male overseer in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), circa 1910. postcard front.
Plucking Tea Up-Country Estate, Ceylon: Multiple women plucking tea in Ceylon (Sri-Lanka} with male overseers, circa 1930s, postcard front
catherine yronwode
curator, historian, and docent
The Mystic Tea Room
