teapot « Past Imperfect, The Art of Inventive Repair

Archive for the ‘teapot’ Category

Classical jasperware teapot, c.1840

Friday, March 25th, 2011

The body of this small unglazed stoneware teapot is made of pale blue jasper (comprised of 59% barium sulphate, 29% clay, 10% flint, 2% barium carbonate) and is decorated with an applied white relief jasper classical scene decoration. It was made in Staffordshire, England around 1830-1850.

Teapot stands 4″ tall. The lid has a skep shaped knob.

The replaced metal handle is fastened to the body using metal bands that wrap around the top collar and bottom of the teapot. Although this method of repair is more unsightly than two small bolts holding a new handle to the body, it is less likely to leak.

Bottom is marked only with the number “43” incised in an applied relief seal. The remains of an earlier putty repair are also evident.

Tags:blue & white, English, jasperware, metal handle, stoneware
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Copeland teapot with staple repair, c.1874

Thursday, February 10th, 2011

This lovely teapot, made in England during the Aesthetic Movement, has a Parian finish and was made by Copeland in 1874. It measures 6 inches high and 8.5 inches from handle to spout. The original pewter lid, which looks like a replacement, is actually original to the piece. I feel that the staple repairs on this teapot enhance the design, as they follow the same graceful line of the raised bent bamboo decoration and the staples mimic the horizontal nodes along the vertical cracks.

The Copeland firm, operated by William Taylor Copeland in Staffordshire, called the parian finish “statuary porcelain” because of its resemblance to the fine white marble of neoclassical sculpture.

There are four staple repairs on each side of the teapot.

The underside of the teapot reveals an incised COPELAND mark and British registry mark in relief, dating this piece to 1874.

This “perfect” teapot is without staple repairs and has an ornate pewter lid. I still prefer my “imperfect” example with visible battle scars proudly displayed.

Photo courtesy of Teapots Teapots Teapots

Tags:English, pottery, staples/rivets
Posted in teapot | 7 Comments »

Nanking teapot, c.1800

Friday, December 31st, 2010

A Chinese porcelain teapot with hand painted cobalt blue Nanking underglaze decoration dates from 1790 to 1820. This type of design, produced in China since the mid-17th century, was so popular that it was first copied in 1780 by the English potter Thomas Turner of Caughley and was mass produced as the “Willow Pattern” (aka “Blue Willow”) with transfer decoration and sold worldwide

Today it is considered “America’s favorite patterned ware” and can be found in the wealthiest homes and roadside diners alike

Teapot measures 4-3/4″ tall and is nearly 10″ wide, from tip of the spout to the end of the replacement handle

A tinsmith came to the aid of the distraught original owner of the broken teapot and created an elaborate replacement handle. The metal handle has crimped edges, a thumb rest, hand grip and a tin truss encompassing the teapot for extra support

The same cobalt blue pagoda pattern is on both sides of the teapot

All that remains of the broken lapped reeded handle are the leaf terminals

This teapot with similar form and decoration shows what my teapot would have looked like with its original lid and handle intact

Photo courtesy of Equinox Antiques

Tags:blue & white, Chinese, metal handle, porcelain
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Staffordshire salt glaze teapot, c.1850

Tuesday, October 26th, 2010

A squat one cup bachelor’s teapot with raised Gothic Revival decoration on a pale blue paneled body, often mistaken for a piece from a child’s tea set. This salt glazed pottery teapot was made in the Staffordshire region of England in the mid 1800’s

Teapot stands 3-1/4″ tall and has the same scrolled decoration on each panel

When the original lid became lost or broken, a metalsmith made a simple replacement metal lid of tin with a delicately turned pewter knob

Tags:English, metal lid, salt glaze, Staffordshire
Posted in teapot | 4 Comments »

“Make-do” at the Met, part 2

Wednesday, September 15th, 2010

Over the summer I returned to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City to see what antiques with inventive repairs were hiding in plain sight. I discovered numerous examples scattered throughout the various collections, including these two teapots found among the Japanese porcelains.

“Teapot in the Shape of a Melon with Floral Design” Rim and hinge made by Thome, New York. Japan, Edo period (1615-1868), late 17th century. Porcelain with underglaze blue decoration and overglaze enamels (Arita ware, Kakiemon type); modern silver lid

“Lobed Teapot with Floral Design” Japan, Edo period (1615-1868), late 17th century. Porcelain with overglaze enamels (Arita ware, Ko Imari type); European replacement spout and handle

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Tags:Japanese, metal lid, metal spout, porcelain, silver, wood handle
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Teapot with heavy metal handle, c.1750

Monday, July 26th, 2010

Chinese export globe-shaped porcelain teapot with Mandarin style decoration in the famille verte palette. This teapot, like many others in my collection, is missing its lid. As other teapots I own have replaced or mismatched lids, I find it curious that the many teapots I find missing their lids have remained lidless

Teapot measures 5″ tall

An identical scene on both sides depicts men and boys, some sitting around a table surrounded by many objects, seemingly a variation of the noted “hundred antiques” pattern

The broken handle was replaced long ago with an existing iron handle taken from another object and adapted to fit this teapot. Although it is larger than the original handle was and looks out of proportion with the scale of the small teapot, it does the trick in making the pot once again functional

This teapot, similar in form and design to mine (and also missing its lid), shows what the original handle would have looked like

Photo courtesy of Collect Fair

Tags:Chinese, metal handle, porcelain
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Small Yixing teapot

Tuesday, July 20th, 2010

This tiny, fully functioning pear shaped Yixing teapot is a copy of one made in China in the mid-19th century and measures a mere 2-1/4″ high by 3-3/4″ wide. It is not a miniature teapot, as is evident from the tiny hole in lid knob which allows steam to escape. Unlike Western tea drinking, the Eastern method is to drink smaller quantities of tea more frequently throughout the day, which requires smaller teapots to be used

When the delicate handle broke in two places, three small gold cuffs were attached to reinforce the breaks and make the teapot function once again

The incised marks on the bottom read: “qie xi bei zhong tong meng chen” which roughly translates to “this small Meng Chen style pot will absorb the flavor of the tea”. Although I bought this piece from a London antiques dealer claiming it to be a genuine antique, a knowledgeable reader recently informed me that it was instead a well done copy of an earlier teapot. Please see his comment below for more information

Hundreds of Yixing teapots were discovered intact during the excavation of the Desaru shipwreck, a Chinese ship with a cargo of ceramics that sank in 1830. The shipwreck was discovered by fishermen in Malaysia in May 2001

Photo courtesy of Ming Wrecks

Tags:Chinese, metal handle, Yixing
Posted in teapot | 2 Comments »

Admiral Nelson teapot, c.1810

Wednesday, July 14th, 2010

A black pottery teapot with relief decoration, made in England to commemorate Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson, who died in 1805 at the Battle of Trafalgar. Nelson become one of Britain’s greatest war heroes and many monuments in England have been erected in his memory

One side has a moulded relief vignette of a crocodile, a pyramid and a fort with military devices, surmounted by a banner titled “TRAFALGAR”, surrounded by classical acanthus leaves

Teapot measures 4-3/4″ high and is 10″ long

The reverse side shows a monument with the figures of Britannia and Victory holding a shield inscribed “NELSON”

Remains of black enamel are seen on the side of the replaced tin spout. It was quite common for teapot spouts to break or chip and I have dozens of examples of this type of repair in my collection. I have even seen silver mounts on intact spouts that would have been attached at the time of purchase for proactive protection

A well executed tin lid with turned pewter knob replaced the lost or broken lid. The large chipped scalloped edge remains unrepaired and was most likely damaged after the other repairs were done

This is another, more elaborate example of a black basalt teapot made to honor Admiral Nelson with similar decoration

Photo courtesy of Christie’s

Tags:basalt, commemorative, English, metal lid, metal spout
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Bullet shaped clobbered teapot, c.1740

Wednesday, June 30th, 2010

A bullet (aka globular) form porcelain teapot made in China, started out with a simple cobalt blue underglaze decoration. Later in life, it was “clobbered” in the Imari style, as a more ornate and colorful type of porcelain was in favor at the time. It was over painted in washes of iron-red, pink, orange and blue enamel. Teapot stands 4-1/4″ high

The broken spout was replaced in the 19th century with a new one made of silver plate

A nicely scalloped silver collar was added in the 1800’s to mask the chipped rim

My porcelain teapot’s bullet form was based on European silver, as is evident in this 18th century silver teapot

photo courtesy of M.S. Rau Antiques

Tags:blue & white, Chinese, clobbered, metal spout, silver
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Mandarin teapot with Rococo spout, c.1790

Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010

Chinese export globular form porcelain teapot made in China in the late 1700’s and painted with polychrome underglaze enamels in the Mandarin palette.