Teapot thumbnail 1
On display
Image of Gallery in South Kensington

Teapot

ca. 1750 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Object Type
Most English earthenware teapots of the first half of the 18th century were very small. This reflected the high cost of tea rather than its popularity, since by mid-century it was being drunk throughout the land by socially ambitious people of limited means.

Design & Designing
When slip-casting and press-moulding were introduced to Staffordshire around 1740, the new trade of block-maker came into being in order to make the master-blocks from which all subsequent disposable plaster moulds could be made. The sources of their early designs were many and various, and also often mildly eccentric: 17th-century prints of life in China and tea cultivation, bas-relief scenes of the taking of Portobello by Admiral Edward Vernon in 1740, exotic animals such as camels and, as here, a gaunt house of the type built by successful master potters around Burslem in the Staffordshire Potteries. The addition of a serpent spout has done little to harmonise the whole design.

Object details

Categories
Object type
Parts
This object consists of 2 parts.

  • Teapot
  • Cover
Materials and techniques
Salt-glazed stoneware, slip-cast
Dimensions
  • Height: 14cm
  • Width: 16.5cm
Dimensions checked: Registered Description; 01/01/1998 by KN
Gallery label
(27/03/2003)
British Galleries:
This teapot resembles the large houses owned by master potters in Staffordshire. Ceramic teapots were seen as an opportunity for novelty in design. They were also made in the shape of camels (saltglazed stoneware), cauliflowers and pineapples (earthenware) and Chinese figures (porcelain) at this time.
(23/05/2008)
Teapot
Made in Staffordshire
about 1750
Salt glazed stoneware, slip-cast with moulded decoration

C.199&A-1926 Given by Dr J.C. Padwick
Credit line
Given by Dr J. C. Padwick
Object history
Made in Staffordshire
Summary
Object Type
Most English earthenware teapots of the first half of the 18th century were very small. This reflected the high cost of tea rather than its popularity, since by mid-century it was being drunk throughout the land by socially ambitious people of limited means.

Design & Designing
When slip-casting and press-moulding were introduced to Staffordshire around 1740, the new trade of block-maker came into being in order to make the master-blocks from which all subsequent disposable plaster moulds could be made. The sources of their early designs were many and various, and also often mildly eccentric: 17th-century prints of life in China and tea cultivation, bas-relief scenes of the taking of Portobello by Admiral Edward Vernon in 1740, exotic animals such as camels and, as here, a gaunt house of the type built by successful master potters around Burslem in the Staffordshire Potteries. The addition of a serpent spout has done little to harmonise the whole design.
Collection
Accession number
C.199&A-1926

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Record createdMarch 27, 2003
Record URL
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