Teapot

Description

Throughout much of ceramics history, plagiarism has played a large part in ceramic design. In the case of this teapot, the overall form of imitates popular Yixing red stoneware from China. The so-called boy-in-tree relief motif on the exterior of the wall of the pot sometimes has been associated with Chinese ceramics but actually imitates Classical European imagery of the child Bacchus (who was associated with wine) in a grapevine. Tea- and more occasionally dinnerware portraying such designs were produced in Staffordshire, England, in salt-glazed white stoneware and unglazed red stoneware. Such items were popular for both domestic and foreign markets, including the American colonies. A so-patterned salt-glazed stoneware sauceboat was excavated in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, at the Hart-Shortridge House site. Fascinatingly, when unearthed, the sauceboat retained its circa 1750, white lead paint repair to its pouring lip. For Winterthur’s Staffordshire stoneware featuring “boy-in-tree” relief motifs, see 2024.0014.058 (salt-glazed white jug), .065 and .066 (unglazed redware jug and teapot).