Description:
English white salt-glazed stoneware teapot, which descended in the Root family of Wapping, Massachusetts, a village just south of Deerfield. The Frenchs, prominent antique dealers in the Connecticut Valley, bought the teapot in 1942 from the estate sale of Edith Amelia Root (1872-1951) who had lived with her sister, Ruth (1883-1934), in the Root home. Their parents were Asabel Root (1845-1925) and Lyntha DeWolf Root (1846-1915); Edith and Ruth were the last of the Root family to live in the house. The small size of early tea wares reflects the expense of tea before 1760. These delicate vessels demanded refined deportment in serving and drinking small amounts of liquid during the tea ceremony and in refraining from finishing the beverage before the conversation ended. The low-domed teapot lid has sheep or Chinese lion finial, mold-applied floral decoration, and a rouletted chevron border. The shoulder of the ovoid-shaped thrown teapot has mold-applied floral decoration; the body is decorated with vertical incised lines, circles, and dashes; and the three short legs are attached to the pot with molded masks and end in lion's paw feet. The attached shaped spout has mold-applied decoration; and the attached handle is molded in the shape of a seahorse. Although Staffordshire white stoneware had been perfected by about 1720, its possibilities for mass-production were not fully exploited until the 1740s. Then the techniques of press-moulding, slip-casting and enamelling were developed, and the drabness of the greyish stoneware surface was successfully relieved by the addition of all-over decoration. The bottom of teapot has two white paper labels: "F. Blacker./p 111/ same potting" and "SW 112/. . ."
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+95.031 |
