Teapot: C.597 & A-1928

Maker(s)

Factory: Unidentified Staffordshire Pottery

Entities

• Teapot
• teapot and cover

Categories

• Stoneware
• White salt-glazed stoneware

Description

Salt-glazed stoneware painted in enamels with floral decoration.

White salt-glazed stoneware painted overglaze in coloured enamels. The pear-shaped teapot has an s-curved spout and loop handle. The body has integral relief decoration in the form of a different shell and scroll pattern on either side of the teapot. On one side of the teapot, the shell pattern includes two masks. The spout and lid are decorated with relief shells and scrolls. Painted in enamels on the sides of the teapot are flowering branches. Four flowers are painted on the lid. The flowers are pinkish-red with green and yellow-green leaves; the branches from which they grow are blue and blue-grey. Parts of the relief on the body and spout are picked out in red, black, green and blue and there is a painted trellis-pattern border around the top of the teapot.

Notes

History note: Provenance unidentified before Galton’s shop, Christchurch, Hampshire (now Dorset), where it was purchased for £23 on 12 November 1918 by Mrs Dickson of Bournemouth on behalf of Dr J.W.L. Glaisher, FRS, Trinity College, Cambridge

Legal notes

Dr J.W.L. Glaisher Bequest.

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1928-12-07) by Glaisher, J. W. L., Dr

Dating

18th Century, Mid#
George II
Production date: circa AD 1750

Note

Several different models of shell teapot were produced by Staffordshire potters at this time. Shells were a common decorative motif in the fashionable rococo style of the mid-18th century.

The teapot is painted in imitation of Chinese famille rose porcelain; the name ‘famille rose’ was coined in the 19th century to describe a particular style of decoration used on porcelain produced in China in the 18th century for the Western market. The style was characterised by soft colours, including notably a rose pink, like the pink used for the flowers here. Porcelain from China was expensive and available only to the wealthy upper classes in England. Staffordshire potters therefore often produced objects in salt-glazed stoneware, a less expensive material, for the middle classes of the 18th century, who wanted to emulate the habits of the gentry, including the elaborate social ritual of tea-drinking, but could not afford Oriental porcelain teawares.

School or Style

Rococo
famille rose