Teapot

Description

During the mid to late 1700s many ceramic designs were imitated at different factories. On this molded, unglazed red stoneware teapot, the lobed body shape echoes those of elegant silver vessels, and scallop shells are stacked on either side of the pot to create vertically oriented relief designs. It is difficult to confidently attribute the redware teapot to a specific maker as generally similar models were produced at more than one factory. Handles and spouts as well as lid finials on such wares were mixed and matched, adding to the variety available to consumers. Mold-making was a costly process and, ideally, manufacturers reused the same mold to create different types of ceramics. The body shape and relief decoration on this redware vessel closely resembles those found in salt-glazed white stoneware, including a teapot excavated at the prominent Logan Family’s Stenton House, near Philadelphia.