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Pineapple Teapot: C.707 & A-1928

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Object information

Current Location: Gallery 27 (Glaisher)

Titles

Pineapple Teapot

Maker(s)

Production: Unidentified Staffordshire Pottery

Entities

Categories

Description

Cream earthenware, moulded in imitation of a pineapple, and decorated wth green and yellow lead-glazes

Cream earthenware, moulded , and decorated with green and yellow lead-glazes. The pear-shaped pot has a scroll handle with a thumb rest at the top, and a spout which is angular at the bottom and curved at the top. There are five irregularly pierced holes in the wall behind the spout. The domed cover has an air vent, and a capstan-shaped knob with a flat circular top edged with spiky leaves. The top is attached to the body by a metal chain. The lower part of the body, the spout, and the area below the handle have spiky leaves, in relief coloured green, and the handle and knob are also green. The upper part of the body and cover have pineapple scales in relief coloured yellow.

Notes

History note: John W. Ford collection, Enfield, Middlesex; sold, second part, Sotheby's, 22 May 1908, lot 49 sold to Mr Stoner for £6 5s. 0d.; purchased from Mr Stoner for £10 2s. 6d, on 25 May, 1908 by Dr J.W.L. Glaisher, FRS, Trinity College, Cambridge

Legal notes

Dr J.W.L. Glaisher Bequest

Measurements and weight

Height: 14.8 cm
Length: 16.8 cm

Acquisition and important dates

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

Dating

18th Century, third quarter#
George II
George III
Circa 1755 CE - 1766 CE

Note

An interesting feature of this teapot is that it is pear-shaped rather than pineapple-shaped.

Label text from the exhibition ‘Feast and Fast: The Art of Food in Europe, 1500–1800’, on display at The Fitzwilliam Museum from 26 November 2019 until 31 August 2020: For some, the supreme artificiality of the home-grown British pineapple caused distrust and disapproval. In Tobias Smollett’s 1751 comic novel, Peregrine Pickle, Mrs Grizzle observed that she could never eat pineapples because they were “altogether unnatural productions, extorted by the force of artificial fire out of filthy manure”. However, pineapple mania seized the popular imagination, and many ceramic factories responded by producing novelty tableware in the shape of pineapples, such as this teapot in ‘ananas form’. In the 1750s, tea was still an expensive luxury, and hence this pot’s small size and limited capacity. It was probably acquired by a fashionable woman with a sense of humour who, unlike Mrs Grizzle, was a fan of pineapples, and who may even have grown some herself.

School or Style

Rococo

Components of the work

Decoration composed of lead-glaze ( green and yellow)

Materials used in production

cream Earthenware

Techniques used in production

Moulding : Cream earthenware, moulded, and decorated with green and yellow lead-glazes
Lead-glazing

References and bibliographic entries

Related exhibitions

Identification numbers

Accession number: C.707 & A-1928
Primary reference Number: 75872
Old object number: 2853
Stable URI

Audit data

Created: Saturday 6 August 2011 Updated: Wednesday 5 April 2023 Last processed: Wednesday 13 December 2023

Associated departments & institutions

Owner or interested party: The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department: Applied Arts

Citation for print

This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:

The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Pineapple Teapot" Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/75872 Accessed: 2024-11-21 14:06:54

Citation for Wikipedia

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{{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/75872 |title=Pineapple Teapot |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-11-21 14:06:54|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

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