Description:
English press molded agateware teapot with a domed cover in a blue and brown abstract marblelized swirl pattern on a cream background. The earliest documented English agateware was made by the potter John Dwight (c.1637-1703) who was working in Fulham from about 1672 to his death. Agateware can be divided into two broad categories: 'thrown agate' and 'laid agate.' 'Thrown agate' describes an object formed by throwing it on a wheel using a prepared mixture of various colored clays. In Staffordshire, thrown agate reached its height of popularity in the 1750, and continued in production into the early 1770s. Laid agate' refers to an object created from a thin sheet or bat made of agate clay; this thin sheet is draped or laid in a mold and pressed into shape. Press-molding can be more effective in creating the swirled effect of naturally occurring agate stone. The documentation for English agateware in the Connecticut River Valley is overwhelming. For instance, the 1772-1774 invoice book of Samuel Boardman of Wethersfield, Connecticut, offers agateware teapots, sugar dishes, & cups and saucers; and Fisher Gay of Farmington, Connecticut, documented his 1768-1774 sales of agateware sugar dishes, teapots, milk pots, cups and saucers as well as small agate plates. In 1773, John Williams (1751-1816) and James Upham (1755-1827), who were briefly business partners, purchased a wide variety of ceramic and glass forms from Ebenezer Bridgham of Boston for sale in Deerfield including "1/2 doz Large Agate Do [teas] 5/: / 2 doz. 1/2 pt agate bowls 2/6" and "1 doz. agate Sugars 3/-." There is also a reference to "2 Marble Canisters 0/2/0" in the 1785 probate inventory of Joseph Barnard (1717-1785) of Deerfield. This teapot's circular lid has a press-molded Chinese lion finial attached with two linked metal chains to metal bands around the eight-faceted shaped spout and hand-rolled loop handlewith its flattened bifurcated lower terminal. The press-molded compressed body is supported on three applied lion's-mask-and-paw feet. The teapot's flange (collar where the lid meets the teapot's body) has been restored.
Label Text:
This teapot’s body was formed from wedging together different colored clays to create the swirled effect of naturally occurring agate stone. Given its frequent appearance in account books, probate records, and newspapers, agateware must have been extremely popular in Deerfield, Massachusetts, and the surrounding Connecticut River Valley towns. In 1773, for instance, the daybook of Deerfield merchant Elijah Williams lists the sale of “large Agate Teapots” and sets of “agate cups and saucers,” and Deerfield merchants John Williams and James Upham purchased agate tea cups, waste bowls, and sugar bowls in Boston for sale back home.
Exhibited in "Rococo: Celebrating 18th Century Design and Decoration" (2018-2019): Naturalistic forms and decoration were frequently integrated into English ceramic Rococo design, as illustrated by this group of pottery and porcelain. The Rococo's embrace of naturalism was certainly inspired by the ideals of the Enlightenment, and 18th-century intellectual movement that raised man's reason and scientific inquiry and discovery to new authoritative heights. Various publications, including the British Museum catalogue at the center of the case, highlighted natural discoveries and curiousities that were incorporated into ceramic forms, such as the adjacent sweetmeat stand with shell-shaped dishes. Several other ceramics in this case imitate the shape or appereance of natural stone or plants, such as the agate teapot and the cauliflower-shaped coffee pot. Some Deerfield residents were eager consumers of these new wares. For instance, in 1773, Paul Hawks purchased "1 Large agate tea pot" from Deerfield store owner John Williams (1751-1816)
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2006.5.2 |
