Description:
With no Chinese porcelain protoypes to copy, British ceramic tea canisters of the 18th century took several different forms. They are mostly, however, square or octagonal with a wide cylindrical lip, and seem to derive from the japanned metal canisters used for displaying and dispensing tea and coffee in grocers' shops. By contrast, smarter tea canisters of glass or silver tended to copy the wooden tea chest, complete with its wavy metal edging and corners. Only later in the century was the little baluster-shaped canister copied by English porcelain factories (for example, Worcester) which imitated Chinese vase-like versions made solely for export. English creamware tea canister (cover missing) press-molded in the "fruit basket" pattern picked out in green, grey, yellow, and brown, which is part of a probably assembled set consisting of a teapot, coffeepot, cream pot, sugar bowl, and tea canister by Staffordshire potter William Greatbatch (1735-1813). Greatbatch was a well-known Staffordshire potter, who also worked for Thomas Whieldon and Josiah Wedgwood as a supplier of molds and ceramic wares. According to Barker and Halfpenny: "This is an extremely common creamware type, often attributed to Leeds, Whieldon and Wedgwood. Examples occur with a range of handle and spouts, and yet all can be now shown to have been produced by Greatbatch. There are no pieces known which might have been produced by any other potter; every vessel form identified has been recovered from the Greatbatch site. This type appears to have been produced over a period of nearly twenty years, with its greatest popularity being in the years 1765-1770. The details of the vessels' modelling do not change, a fact which points to the use, over many years, of just one set of block moulds. The earlier basket of fruit wares have a darker cream-coloured glaze and basketwork handles or spouts are typical. The later examples of this type have a much lighter glaze, which has a hint of green, and indented-loop handles are the most common type used." Most fruit basket wares have some coloring, painted on to the wares when they were in biscuit state; the colors were applied underglaze in the form of metallic oxides which flowed when glazed and fired. This canister has a a band of basketweave around the top over the tops of the molded handles; over the sides encircled by molded, assorted fruits and leaves piled into the basket, occasionally spilling over the sides, and the basket handles rising up the curved corners; over a diagonal trelliswork panels; over a band of horizontal basketweave over flat base. With no Chinese porcelain protypes to copy, British ceramic tea canisters of the 18th century took several different forms. They are mostly, however, square or octagonal with a wide cylindrical lip, and seem to derive from the japanned metal canisters used for displaying and dispensing tea and coffee in grocers' shops. By contrast, smarter tea canisters of glass or silver tended to copy the wooden tea chest, complete with its wavy metal edging and corners. Only later in the century was the little baluster-shaped canister copied by English porcelain factories (for example, Worcester), which imitated Chinese vase-like versions made solely for export.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+57.170D |
