The current issue of Tea Time magazine (May/June 2010) contains an article featuring teapots with inventive repairs from my collection, written by author and tea expert Elizabeth Knight.
Tea Time creative director and photographer Mac Jamieson flew up from Alabama to shoot this story in my NYC apartment. He and editor Lorna Reeves were a pleasure to work with and both exuded southern charm!
I am a big fan of clobbered (over-decorated) porcelains and this piece does not disappoint. A Chinese export porcelain teapot, measuring 5-1/4″ high, originally with blue underglaze Nanking decoration fell out of fashion shortly after it was made. In order to keep up with the sudden demand for polychrome Chinese ceramics, factories took the unwanted pieces with blue decoration and overpainted with brightly colored enamels, often without regard for the original design
And if that wasn’t enough, when the handle broke off it was repaired using metal staples and wrapped with lead. The result is less than attractive but the sturdy repair makes the teapot once again serviceable
This teapot escaped the hand of a painter with polychrome enamels and retains its original blue decoration
Photo courtesy of Equinox Antiques
This small pottery creamer from a child’s tea service is 3 inches tall and has green transfer decoration depicting a woman with a basket of flowers and a castle in the distance.
This close up shows the pointillist transfer decal decoration in “high definition”.
A crudely made copper armature was attached as the base structure for a replacement handle. Many layers of gesso and enamel matching the original colors were applied over this, but have since fallen away.
Another jug with similar form and decoration suggests what the handle on my little jug may have looked like.
Photo courtesy of eBay
A ribbed surface Chinese porcelain dish with the “Hundred Antiques” pattern is decorated in a famille verte palette, depicting culturally significant items of the period including vases, textiles and utensils.
After the dish broke and was repaired with metal staples, it was placed in an elaborate circa 1750 bronze rococo mount with cherubs.
10 metal staples were used to hold this dish back together again.
The dish alone is 6″ in diameter and measures 9-3/4″ long including the added bronze mount.
An unusual detail is a porcelain fragment from another broken object, added to the top portion of the mount.
If anyone has information on this mark, please let me know.
This American pressed glass oil lamp with tri-mold marks measures 7-1/2″ high and has a classic gadrooned body design. It is not uncommon to find glass oil lamps with replacement bases, as these were handled often over the course of each day and accidents did happen. Please check out my other oil lamps to see replacement bases created in various styles and made from an array of materials
A wood replacement base with silver gilt surface was probably made in the 1920’s-30’s, as is evident from its “art deco” look
The oil lamp below with a similar shape still has its original glass base, a lucky survivor of over 100 years of use
Photo courtesy of Antique Mystique
When I found this large and very heavy American stoneware pottery wine jug in Maine, I was unable to pack it properly and take it with me on my flight back home later that day. Luckily, one of the friends I was visiting was a pilot and simply brought it on board his flight to New York the next day. The triangular remains of the broken clay handle leaves a distinctive maker’s mark
It would have been awkward to lift this 18-1/2″ tall jug with the absence of its handle, especially when full of wine. Rather than trying to replace the broken handle, a sturdy iron band with swing handle was attached to the jug
A close up of the iron strap and handle shows the work of the local ironsmith who made this East coast jug more functional
The small hole at the bottom is where a wooden spigot would have been inserted to dispense the wine
A similar jug shows what the applied handle would have looked like
Photo courtesy of Prock’s Crocks
This soft paste pottery “Dutch” shape jug is decorated in a stylized grape leaf pattern using a silver resist method of decoration. This type of decoration is achieved by painting the design with a resist substance such as thinned honey, applying the silver glaze over the entire jug, washing off the resist to reveal the unglazed decoration and firing to set the silver lustre background
Silver lustre, or “poor man’s silver” was first introduced in the 18th century by John Hancock for Spode. It remained popular throughout the 19th century, until the invention of electro plating brought silver plated items in to the masses in 1838. This jug measures 4-3/4″ tall
Tin was used to fashion a replacement handle and strap, most likely by an itinerant tinsmith or china mender
Another silver resist lustre jug shown with its original handle with the same silhouette as the replacement
Photo courtesy of John Howard
This pair of lightweight creamware tea cups, each measuring 2-5/8″ tall, has orange transfer decoration with the “Liverpool Birds” pattern
These were most likely made in Wedgwood, England
When the handle of the cup on the right broke in three places, metal cleats were attached on either side of the cracks and painted to mask the repair
The cup on the left has metal staples holding the cracks stable and were also painted to match the body of the cup
This Chinese export porcelain teapot with globular (aka bullet) form has a blue underglaze decoration and a simple looped handle.
Teapot measures 4-1/2″ high.
Nicely painted decoration of a man on horseback is featured on both sides of the teapot.
Not only has the spout been replaced with silver sometime in the early to mid 1800’s…
…but the lid now sports a nicely turned wood replacement knob.
The wood replacement knob is held in place with this early, hand forged bolt & nut.
This example shows what the original spout and knob may have looked like.
Photo courtesy of Collectibles Articles
This wins the prize for being the largest antique with an inventive repair in my collection. I found this grain shovel, hand carved from one piece of wood, at an antique shop only a few miles from my weekend house in upstate NY. It measures 36″ long by 13″ wide and I believe the wood to be pine.
It was not unusual for large utilitarian pieces carved from a single piece of wood to crack. The farmer who repaired this piece was quite thorough, using a large piece of metal and dozens of small nails to repair the split blade.
Wooden “one piece” shovels of this design were first made by the Shakers in the early to mid 1800’s.
A pair of iron straps were nailed to the back of the blade to help secure the break.
