Description:
Press molded apple shaped teapot, with molded crabstock handle and spout, there are applied leaves to the side of the teapot and a domed cover with twig knop, the teapot is decorated with half colored with iron oxide and the other half decorated with green glaze.
Label Text:
Earthenware forms inspired by fruits, vegetables, and natural materials (such as tortoiseshell) were extremely popular in England throughout the 1760s and into the next decade. They were produced by numerous potters including Josiah Wedgwood. These wares were their response to the fashionably naturalistic creations of the Chelsea and Longton Hall porcelain factories and more broadly to the current taste for such forms, which were characteristic of the rococo style. Handles and spouts were often created as bent twigs or branches often called “crabstock” style. Molded flowers, vines, or leaves often decorate these vessels. These body types and forms would have been available to middle class residents of the Connecticut River Valley. These ceramics were brought from either New York or Boston china and glass dealers such as Ebenezer Bridgham and Frederick Rhinelander. The ceramics continued to be popular in the Valley into the 1770s, far beyond their fashion heyday in urban areas. On September 1, 1778, Josiah Blakeley advertised in the Connecticut Courant (Hartford, CT): "A general assortment of Crockery Ware by Wholesale of Retail consisting of … coli flower, cream colour, melon and black Tea Pots; cream colourd green, and turtle shell Cream Cups….” Agate, melon, and cauliflower ware cups and saucers were all retailed in Deerfield by Elijah Williams and his son, John Williams.Apple and pear teapots are known to have been made by several Staffordshire potteries in the 1760s. Fragments of apple teapots have been excavated on the site of William Greatbatch’s pottery in Fenton, Thomas Whieldon's pottery at Fenton, and at an unidentified site at Town Road, Hanley, Staffordshire. The records of Boston merchant Samuel Abbot listed “2 large Appll Teapots” in a 1757 invoice.
Subjects:
Pottery; glaze (coating by location) Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2025.6.7 |
