Mid 18th Century Whieldon-Type Creamware Tortoiseshell Teapot With Grape Vine Relief and Crabstock Handle, Staffordshire

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Whieldon-Type Creamware Tortoiseshell Teapot with Grape Vine Relief and Crabstock Handle, Staffordshire
Circa 1765–1775

This is the kind of teapot … Read more Whieldon-Type Creamware Tortoiseshell Teapot with Grape Vine Relief and Crabstock Handle, Staffordshire
Circa 1765–1775

This is the kind of teapot that stops people mid-sentence. Made in Staffordshire around 1765 to 1775, it has a plump globular body molded on both sides with trailing grape vines, big vine leaves and bunches of grapes, a spout and handle shaped like gnarled crabstock branches, and three lion mask and paw feet that give it a wonderful animal stance. The domed cover carries a loop handle sprouting from an applied vine leaf and grape cluster.

What makes it sing is the glaze. Dark green, gray-blue and brown oxides were allowed to run and mingle under a clear lead glaze in the tortoiseshell manner, so the surface reads like moss, bark and shadow. No two passages are alike, and the interior is left in plain cream.

It is a natural for a bookshelf or mantel in a library or study, a glass-fronted cabinet of early English pottery, or a kitchen dresser where it can hold its own among creamware and slipware. It sits beautifully with dark oak, Georgian mahogany, botanical prints and anything with a foraged, woodland palette.

Thomas Whieldon, Josiah Wedgwood's partner in the 1750s, gave his name to this mottled-glaze pottery, though many Staffordshire potteries made it and almost none is marked, hence "Whieldon-type".

Dimensions:
Height: 4¼ inches (10.8 cm)
Width: 6¼ inches (15.9 cm)
Depth: 4 inches (10.2 cm)

Provenance:
Earle D. Vandekar of Knightsbridge See less