Antique English Polychrome Chinoiserie Creamware Teapot, 1700s

Details

Description

This rare late-18th-century teapot combines a balanced globular profile with lively hand-painted chinoiserie decoration and an unusual moulded spout junction.
… Read more This rare late-18th-century teapot combines a balanced globular profile with lively hand-painted chinoiserie decoration and an unusual moulded spout junction.
Probably made in England circa 1770–1785, the unmarked body appears to be creamware or an early china-glazed refined earthenware rather than hard-paste porcelain. No specific factory attribution is asserted.
The form comprises a globular body raised on a low circular foot, a tall cylindrical neck, a domed cover with an elongated pointed pear-shaped finial and a high rounded loop handle. The handle rises to approximately the level of the cover, producing a particularly harmonious silhouette.
Its most distinctive structural feature is the long, strongly curved ascending spout. At its junction with the body is an unusual moulded foliate and scroll-shaped reinforcement. Most related teapots have a plain junction, making the sculptural treatment of this example particularly noteworthy.
Both sides are individually hand-painted with chinoiserie figures in fenced garden landscapes. Flowering branches, fruit, stylised vegetation and freely brushed areas of ground are rendered in iron red, puce, yellow, green, blue and black overglaze enamels.
A closely comparable 16.5 cm globular teapot, with a related cylindrical neck, curved spout, high loop handle, pointed finial and polychrome chinoiserie decoration, has been catalogued by Moorabool Antique Galleries as pearlware, circa 1760. The present piece differs principally in its considerably rarer moulded foliate spout junction.

Attribution: Probably English creamware or early china-glazed refined earthenware; factory unknown
Period: Circa 1770–1785
Country of manufacture: Probably England, possibly Staffordshire or Yorkshire
Material: Probably creamware or early china-glazed refined earthenware
Technique: Wheel-thrown and hand-finished, lead-glazed and decorated in polychrome overglaze enamels

Mark: Unmarked
Weight: 396 g
Height: 17.5 cm
Overall length: 21 cm
Body diameter: 13 cm

Condition:
The upper section of the loop handle has been professionally reattached. There is a small loss to the glaze or enamel at the lip of the spout. A fine hairline crack is visible from the interior of the cover. The rim of the cover has undergone old professional restoration and associated repainting. Fine glaze crazing, kiln speckling, staining and surface wear consistent with age are present.
Please study all accompanying photographs carefully, as they form an integral part of the . See less