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.)
Teapot, caneware, moulded, basic oval form - long straight panel with chamfered corners to either side, concave panels to front and back rounded under handle and spout; straight sides rising to a concave shoulder slightly projecting over body, angular ear-shaped handle with thumbpiece, part spout, shallow stepped domed cover projecting over body and with angular loop handle; complex moulded decoration of panelling moulded with acanthus to lower third of body, narrow pilasters rising from chamfered corners to shoulder and terminating with quarter flower heads, one long side moulded with a draped female figure pouring oil on a flaming brazier, the other with a draped female figure reading a book, foliate moulding to base of spout and upper side of handle, band of keyhole moulding around shoulder and around lower half of cover; bands of rust enamel around foot, below shoulder, around rims of body and cover, above cover moulding; rust enamel delineating handles, foliate moulding to spout.
Acquisition
Bequest, 10/12/1953
Measurements
Height
(cm): 7.8
Length
(cm): 20.5
Width
(cm): 13.6
Height
(in): 3
Length
(in): 8
Width
(in): 5
Techniques
moulded
forming
Applied Art
enamelled
decoration
Applied Art
Material
dry-bodied stoneware
