Teapot

Description

So-called melon ware, featuring a cream-colored earthenware body decorated in broad vertical stripes of alternating green and yellow, was a popular commodity among British and colonial consumers. The brilliant-colored glazes used to decorate such wares are associated with Staffordshire potter Josiah Wedgwood, who is said to have developed them in 1759 during his partnership with Thomas Whieldon. Such glazes became available at a time when ornament and shapes inspired by Nature were particularly popular. On creamware, this resulted not only in the production of melon ware but on cauliflower ware (such as the coffeepot 1993.0072), and tortoiseshell ware (such as the dish 1966.1503). Based on archaeological evidence, melon ware was produced in Staffordshire, England at many factories, including Thomas Whieldon’s Fenton Vivian works and the William Greatbatch factory at Lower Lane, Fenton. In New York, the orders and sales accounts of the successful merchant, Frederick Rhinelander, record purchases of melon teapots, cream-ewers, sugars and bowls, as well as cups and saucers. Such ware probably also is referred to in the 1774 estate inventory of widow Mary Westrand, of Providence, Rhode Island, who owned “1 Tea Pot green and yellow.” On October 23, 1773, Deerfield, Massachusetts, shopkeeper, John Williams ordered from the Boston merchant Ebenezer Bridgham, among other English earthenware, “1 Gro[ss of] Mellon Teas.” Further north, archaeological evidence found in Portsmouth, New Hampshire at the Richard Hart House and Deer Tavern sites includes fragments of melon teapot bases. Attempts at imitating such ware in America are evidenced by early 1770s biscuit fragments of melon ware excavated at the site of the works of potter John Bartlam of Charleston, South Carolina. For melon ware at Winterthur, see 1955.0136.012 (Teapot), 2006.0006.001 (Coffee cup), 2024.0014.028 (Tea bottle), and 2024.0014.029 (Teapot).