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. Partial coffee and tea service transfer-printed with the “exotic birds” pattern and enhanced with green enamels and cold gilding, c. 1775. While these pieces are unmarked, Josiah Wedgwood employed this popular print on numerous examples of his creamware. John Sadler and Guy Green of Liverpool reproduced this print for Wedgwood as early as 1761 in various adaptations, copying similar designs from porcelain factories such as Sèvres, Worcester, and Meissen. Rectangular tea canister with rounded shoulders and straight flange; lid is domed shaped and topped with a small flower finial; canister lid has transfer printed decoration of butterflies and moths; these prints are enamelled in green and gold; body is decorated with transfer printed designs of the "Liverpool Birds," on one side and a bouquet of roses printing on the opposite side; the printing is further decorated with green enamels and gilding. patterns of this type were transfer printed on creamware by Sadler & Green for Wedgwood. Reilly says: "'Birds' are first noted as being drawn for engraving in August 1763 and were in production in black or red by the following year. Renamed 'Liverpool Birds', these and similar engravings have been regularly in production...for more than 200 years."
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2006.33.43.3 |
