Teapot and cover
Cambrian Pottery (Established in Swansea in 1764, the Cambrian Pottery reached its creative peak under the proprietorship of Lewis Weston Dillwyn (1778-1855), who ran the Pottery (with a break between 1817 and 1824) from 1802 to 1836. Lewis Weston Dillwyn was a natural scientist, antiquarian, Member of Parliament, magistrate and landowner whose intellectual interests drove the Cambrian Pottery to become one of the most ambitious and artistically accomplished British potteries of the early 19th century. While the porcelain manufactured in Swansea between 1814 and 1825 justifies its reputation as among the finest of British porcelains, the pottery produced under Dillwyn’s ownership between 1802 and about 1809 was at its best an equally impressive achievement, most particularly that made for sale in the Pottery’s Cambrian Warehouse in London 1806-1808, the context for which this supper service was most likely created.)
Minature teapot, earthenware, standing on a cylindrical foot-rim, globular body, short cylindrical neck, plain curving spout, plain loop handle, round domed cover with flat collar-like rim, to the top of the cover an oviform finial with a pierced steam hole through it; transfer-printed in black with to the exterior sides of the teapot two Chinese-style scenes, one showing a small figure in an enclosure formed by an oriental fence and a pagoda with oriental trees to either side, the other showing two figures in a garden setting with urns, a bench and flowering plants, border to the shoulder of a scale pattern enclosed by scrolls issuing spreading foliage with hatched panels, a similar border to the rim of the cover, floral sprays to the spout, the handle and the finial of the cover. The foot-rim and the rim of the cover chipped.
Creation/Production
Date: 1800-1805
Acquisition
Bequest, 10/12/1953
Measurements
Height
(cm): 11.6
diam
(cm): 8.5
Width
(cm): 14
Height
(in): 4
diam
(in): 3
Width
(in): 5
Techniques
wheel-thrown
forming
Applied Art
press-moulded
forming
Applied Art
assembled
forming
Applied Art
transfer-printed
decoration
Applied Art
glazed
decoration
Applied Art
Material
earthenware
glaze
