Posted By: Mark
Posted on: 2011-06-25 19:44:38

Featured Item:
A Wedgwood Red Body Teapot

A while back, a woman came into our booth and startled us by asking why we had placed a Chinese teapot in our Wedgwood section. Although we explained that it was not Asian, but a piece of Wedgwood dating from the 1860's-70's, we had to admit that the pot is a bit of an odd duck.  We began to ask ourselves just exactly what was the story behind this little teapot?  No surface decoration, a partial date mark, a clay body which, come to think of it, we were not exactly sure how to label.  About the only immediately obvious element was the impressed Wedgwood mark.     

 

Often, in the world of Wedgwood ceramics, we think all the detective work has been done.   With the 1982 publication of her book, Wedgwood Ceramics, 1846-1959, Maureen Batkin asserted that no pottery had been more thoroughly researched than Wedgwood:  the wares, the factory, the family.  Yet Batkin noted that the bulk of this research focused around the golden era of Wedgwood and Josiah I, as if later developments in the Wedgwood story were unworthy of attention.  Robin Reilly alleviated the situation somewhat with the 1989 publication of his two volume history, WEDGWOOD.  Yet, in 2011 Josiah I still casts an overwhelming shadow only partially remedied with the interest stirred up by collectors groups and shifts in collecting taste.   In the world of Wedgwood, it seems there will always be examples which appear with no obvious context (or reason) in the Wedgwood catalog.  Then again, maybe it is just our ignorance.  In this month's featured item, we search for a rationale for one such item, this little red body teapot.   

 

    

(Links embedded in photos)
 
Dimensions:  Height 4 in., Width 6 3/4 in.
 
Date:  Late 1860's -- 1870's
 
Price: $450.00 

 
    The Teapot Body 
 
When one attempts to classify a ceramic object, an obvious starting point is the "body," that is to say the clay itself.  Is it porcelain or pottery, soft paste or bone china, earthenware or stoneware, dry body or glazed?  Our little pot is an example of a dry body red stoneware.  The term "dry" refers to wares which have received no additional glaze to seal or finish the exterior of the body.  (In fact, the interior of this teapot is glazed to prevent the hot tea from being absorbed into the body.)  This body classification is important because in the ceramic pecking order, porcelain was the body all others were measured against.  Josiah Wedgwood challenged this maxim, however, demonstrating that other bodies could achieve the same degree of elegance.  
 
The red stoneware dry body was developed by Josiah Wedgwood under the name "Rosso Antico."  According to Robin Reilly's account,Wedgwood never wanted to produce a red body stoneware observing that it was a common product in the potteries.  He felt that such a body could not help but be referred to as a common "red-Pot-Teapot."  However upon his partner Bentley's urging, he relented perfecting a red stoneware body.  This development resulted in a range of products marked by Wedgwood's high standards of design and sophistication.  Still, he cared little for these wares and let production dwindle after Bentley's death in 1780.

 

 

Josiah the second did not share his father's prejudice against this body.   Upon assuming management of the company after Josiah I's death in 1795, production was initiated on what would grow into a wide range of wares.  In fact, the body became a staple which seems to have been used throughout the nineteenth century, differing from eighteenth century pieces in its general tendency toward a brighter red color.  The Rosso Antico moniker was soon abandoned and the wares were referred to simply as 'red body.' 

    

In addition to unadorned red pieces, the range of wares included examples with applied sprig decoration such as the flower pot and stand illustrated here.  Sprigging was offered in either a special black-brown clay or white.  Enamel decoration was also used with this body as we see in the club shape jug pictured above.  In his discussion of the body, Robin Reilly points out a distinct shift in the weight of this body around mid-century, illustrating heavier, more utilitarian jugs and even pipes.  Still, the sprig or enamel decorated wares are generally perceived as more refined. 

 

The marketplace today finds itself in a quandary as to how to refer to these various pieces.  While Josiah II dropped the term Rosso Antico, it has currency in today's market, especially for the finer decorated wares.  However one finds the terms red body and Rosso Antico and even terra cotta used for the undecorated wares.  

 

  The Teapot Shape  
 
What can we tell about our teapot from its shape? Wedgwood could have looked to two sources for this teapot shape, early 17th century oriental teapots and the 18th century English pots which were based on those earlier Asian pots.    
 
When we look at teapots, we have to remember that teapots did not exist before tea-drinking became a western habit in the late seventeenth century.  In the orient, boiling water was poured over tea leaves and allowed to steep in a little bowl prior to drinking.  From this we derive the handless cups and saucers associated with eighteenth and early nineteenth century tea wares.  The teapot is the result of western demand for a vessel in which to steep the tea prior to pouring.  

 

According to Phillip Miller and Michael Berthoud in An Anthology of British Teapots, the first pots were imported from the orient.  These pots were probably derived from vessels used for serving wine adapted by the addition of a strainer at the base of the spout.  By the second decade of the eighteenth century, a round pot with loop handle and straight spout had become the standard shape for imported porcelain pots.  This shape, moreover, became the prototype for many of the first ceramic teapots produced in England.  Wedgwood's red body teapot pays tribute to this simple, classic, practical shape. 

Despite the English precedents for the shape, there is one clue suggesting that our pot derives directly from oriental models--the long flange of the lid.  English teapot lids exhibit a short, practical flange. This flange is more similar to those associated with Asian tea wares. 

    The Teapot's Date 

 

Dating our teapot should--in theory--be simple. In fact it requires some degree of deduction.

 

Wedgwood utilized a three digit date code system from 1860 to 1929.  Unfortunately, sporadic marking and partial marks compromise its usefulness.  This teapot exhibits a partial date code.   However, the enamel decorated breakfast cup and saucer illustrated here carries a complete date code for 1866. Comparing our teapot with the cup and saucer, we note similar weight and potting, not quite as heavy as the utilitarian wares noted above.  Further, both examples are glazed inside indicating Wedgwood's intent that these pieces were to be used.  With that in mind, we estimate a date range from the late 1860's to the early 1870's for this teapot. (In fact, while this essay was being prepared, we encountered an identical pot with date marks for 1871.)  That said, additional undecorated coffee and tea cups and saucers shown below exhibit both glazed and unglazed interiors.

     

Next we have to ask how this simple unadorned teapot materialized in an era associated with material display.  

 
 

Victorian Design Reform and Internationalism 

 

On May 1, 1851, Queen Victoria officiated at the opening ceremonies for "The Great Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations," better known as "The Crystal Palace."   This was a landmark moment in the story of design in the Western world.  However this was not an isolated event.  Concern for the standards of manufacture and the effects of good design had circulated among British thinkers and writers for some time.  A group of active design reform advocates, working under the banner of the Society of Arts, began sponsoring  competitions and exhibitions of wares demonstrating good design.  Their efforts, patronized by Prince Albert, led to the creation of The Crystal Palace. 

 

In the Great Exhibition the British were confronted by examples of design from over twenty countries from around the globe and British colonies, as well as a generous representation of domestic manufacturers.  In the end, it became an opportunity for comparison of design standards (in which the British frequently found themselves lacking).  However, more important was the exposure to an array of international, as well as historic, influences that provided grist for the mills of design and manufacture for the remainder of the century. The story of how the Crystal Palace led to a succession of world fairs is well known. Closer to home the efforts continued with the founding of schools of art and design in Kensington and ultimately the establishment of the Victoria and Albert Museum, conceived as a permanent repository of world-wide reference materials for the use of British designers, manufacturers and craftsmen.

 

Among these multi-cultural influences, none was more prominent than Asian design. Chinoiserie decoration had long been a hallmark of wealth and taste in Europe.  The opening of Japan to international trade in the 1850's created a new influx of Asian goods into the market and as Robin Reilly notes, by the Paris exhibition of 1867, a popular Japanese mania was under way. However, since fine distinctions are never of much concern in such popular trends, a good many Chinese elements were carried along in the great wave as well. The impact of these design influences touched every element of home goods manufacture, and the Staffordshire potters were not long in picking up on the trend.   

 

 

 

    Wedgwood and the Red Body Teapot   
  
Wedgwood in the 1860's was just beyond a crossroads.  In 1842, Frank Wedgwood, grandson of Josiah Wedgwood I  had found himself in control of a family company in serious trouble. Years of indifferent management on the part of the family had left the business with outdated facilities.  A lack of capital led to the extraordinary decision to bring in outside partners and in 1844 to the more drastic decision to liquidate the holdings. The factory failed to meet its reserve, however enough capital had been generated to position Wedgwood for re-launch at the 1851 Exhibiton.  

 

Although Wedgwood's participation in the first of the series of exhibitions was unremarkable, even discouraging, these international events eventually served as the vehicles by which, in Robin Reilly's words, "Wedgwood was trying to resuscitate its lost reputation for vitality and quality" (II, pg.74).

 

There can be little doubt that the stimulus of the Great Exhibition of 1851, and of the spate of international exhibitions that followed it between 1853 (Dublin) and 1893 (Chicago) acted upon the Wedgwoods and encouraged them to seek an originality and excellence that had eluded them (II, pg.71). 

 

International exposure and competition spurred Wedgwood to look beyond the family for artistic resources, hiring prominent artists who would shape a more defined design operation for the firm. A look at the production that followed reveals the originality and variety of influences that--along with a renewal in the production of jasperware--restored the pottery to prominence.

 

It is to this period of development that our teapot belongs. Clearly the public's romance with Asia was one factor in its design. Perhaps Wedgwood was also influenced by Minton which had achieved a rather well known success with a teaset, which following the dictates of reform advocates, was of a simple design, yet strongly rooted in design tradition and, most important, practical and inexpensive to produce. In addition, a number of potters demonstrate an interest in unglazed red wares at this time. The Wedgwood teapot, whatever its sources, points--in its serene way--to the splashier expressions of the Eastern aesthetic Wedgwood would produce later in the century.

 

 
    Collecting Today

 

We can see three groups of potential collectors for this teapot.

 

The first two groups are the specialist collectors.  These are the  Wedgwood specialists and teapot collectors looking for unusual examples.  Wedgwood specialists are interested in examples of all aspects of Wedgwood's production, especially if they reveal some seldom noted detail of Wedgwood history. Teapot collectors are simply fascinated with teapots, from their function, to their pleasing form, to the stories they tell about design. 

 

Finally there are the collectors of late nineteenth century design.  However the clean, simple design of this example may not appeal to every collector of this period.   This piece does not reveal its charms with the immediate sweetness we associate with late nineteenth century wares.  One has to consider this piece in the context of other strong period design, the austere severity of some Christopher Dresser design, the simple Mintons teawares noted above, and other examples that point toward the modern era. One has to look to much purer, sophisticated interiors such as that assembled by the National Trust at Standen outside of London or the interior designs of W. H. Godwin or Whistler.  

 

Moving onto the turn of the twentieth century one can imagine the pot fitting comfortably in one of the serenely Japanesque interior studies by the painters of the Boston School--William McGregor Paxton, Joseph DeCamp, Frank Benson, or Edmund Tarbell. The pot could have moved smoothly from its earlier era onto the tea tables of the elegant ladies these artists depicted.  That's what good design does.  
 

    Conclusion 

 

I do not know that we have successfully teased the story out of this rather laconic little pot.  The combination of the classic shape in the red body creates such simple, clean design that it could have been intended for a sophisticated urban tea table.  Given the one and one half cup capacity, perhaps it was part of a breakfast tray.  Why, however, is the pot so uncommon? If our suppositions are justified, perhaps it represents a sort of experimental period for the pottery: a time when Wedgwood was trying on Asian forms, an attempt to reach the public with practical, affordable, but refined wares. Whatever its status at the time of its production, it clearly points to better known things to come. 

 

Or are we making too much of this  "red pot teapot?"    

 

    Later,   Mark

*

*

            

Paintings from the Boston School (L to R)  Paxton, Tarbell, Benson, DeCamp  (Google Images)

*

*

Sources and Recommended Reading

 

Our Wedgwood research seems to always start with two authors, Maureen Batkin and Robin Reilly .

Batkin, Maureen; Wedgwood Ceramics 1846-1959: A new appraisal. London, Richard Dennis, 1982. 

Reilly, Robin; Wedgwood, Volume I and II  .  London, Macmillan London Limited, 1989.

 

Teapot References

 

Miller, Philip and Berthoud, Michael; An Anthology of British Teapots. Bridgnorth, Shropshire, Micawber Publications, 1985.

 

For information about The Great Exhibition and the Society of Arts, we find the biobraphy of reformer Henry Cole indispensable. 

 

Bonyton, Elizabeth and Burton, Anthony; The Great Exhibitor, The Life and Work of Henry Cole.  London, V&A Publications, 2003.

 

For information about Japan and the Japanese influence in Western wares, the catalog to a remarkable exhibit at the Hartford Atheneum is stll one of our favorite resources.

 

William Hosley; The Japan Idea, Art and Life in Victorian America.  Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut, 1990. (Exhibition October - December 1990)

 

For examples of the later Japanesque interiors of the Boston school, we recommend the catalog to what must have been a luscious exhibition. 

 

Fairbrother, Trevor J.; The Bostonians, Painters of an Elegant Age, 1870-1930.  Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1986 (Exhibition June - September 1986)

 

 

Posted By: Mark & Tim
Posted on: 2011-04-18 22:37:00

Featured Item:
The Wedgwood Punch Wares

Happy Birthday, Mr. Punch!
 
Among the many reasons to celebrate in the spring of the year, surely one of the most totally forgotten--at least in this country--is the birthday of Punch. This May he will turn a very sprightly 349. Wishing to do our part to bring the little fellow the attention he deserves, this month we are featuring some of Wedgwood's tributes to this favorite entertainer.
  
Seekers currently offers three examples of Wedgwood "Punch" wares, a creamer in majolica and two polychrome transfer-printed pieces in earthenware: a "Napier" shape jug and a rather extraordinary footed bowl. 

    

/products/3530

Majolica Creamer                                      

Dimensions:  Length 4 1/2 in., Height 3 in. (Handle)
 
Dates: Late 1870's, Early 1880's
 
Price: $875.00

 

/products/3083 
 
Napier Jug

Dimensions:  Height 6 7/8 in.
 
Dates: Late 1870's, Early 1880's
 
Price:  $625.00

/products/3135

Footed Bowl
 
Photo/Specs
 
Dimensions: Width 4 3/4 in., Height 2 in., Diameter (Bowl) 3 7/8 in.
 
Dates: Late 1870's, Early 1880's
 
Price:  $695.00 

  
    The Punch Wares
 
Wedgwood's interest in the Punch tradition finds expression in two forms. First, majolica pieces that appear in  Wedgwood catalog pages at least by 1876. Slightly later, judging by their 1878 design registration date, Wedgwood presented a series of transfer-decorated, ivory glazed utilitarian vessels, often appearing with colorful enamel highlights. Frankly, neither category receives much attention in the standard reference works.
 
One can find documentation of two Punch designs in majolica. Maureen Batkin's Wedgwood Ceramics 1846-1959: A New Appraisal, as well as majolica reference works by Karmason and Stacke and by Nicholas Dawes, illustrate a punch bowl appropriately studded by sculptural heads of Mr. Punch and supported by full figures of his dog Toby. In addition Dawes includes a teaset with Punch, Judy, and Toby fittings, from which our creamer derives. (Full citations below.) 

Batkin, in her chapter on "Victorian Tablewares" makes quick business of the printed Punch wares, but illustrates some of the forms in the series (pg.124, pl.224 reproduced below.)  She gives a short inventory of pieces; a rope handled jug known as the "Napier" shape, cruet, tea and beer sets.  To this list of items, we can add a tall slender flagon with metal fitting and lid similar to the wine flagons found in jasperware.  

Since these design motifs find their origins both in the traditional Punch and Judy puppet show and the popular nineteenth-century periodical named after our hero, a brief look at both sources seems in order.
 
    Background --The Punch and Judy Origins  
 
Mr. Punch is a creature of the theatre, a corruption of the Neapolitan comedia dell'arte figure Pulcinella.  Originally he was a trickster who was constantly becoming entangled with other characters.  While he always won in the end, at times he could be overbearing and his methods were often violent.  He was accompanied by his wife, Joan (eventually anglicized to Judy).  Samuel Pepys mentions seeing an Italian marionette show in Covent Garden on May 9, 1662, which is considered the forerunner of Mr. Punch -- and provides Punch aficionados a birthday date to celebrate.    
 
Wedgwood's design motifs derive from the ongoing British tradition of the Punch and Judy puppet shows.  These shows were originally seen as grown-up entertainments, but were transformed into children's amusements in the nineteenth century.  The shows continue to this day with a basic central cast which includes Mr. Punch, his wife Judy, their baby, a hungry crocodile, Joey the clown, an officious policeman and a string of sausages.  Toby the dog and Hector the horse, seen on Wedgwood's Punch transfers, were once regular characters, but now make only occasional appearances.   There is even a third set of characters which now appear only in historical re-enactments. 
 
For the Victorian, however, the name "Punch" suggested much more than a puppet show.  Founded in 1841, the magazine Punch was  conceived as a weekly periodical of humor and satire.  While one naturally assumes that the paper was appropriately named for the puppet, the account contained on the website dedicated to the periodical's history tells a different story.  The goal of the paper was to pair clever satiric wit with higher literary standards.  One of the partners insisted that it should avoid the bitterness of similar current publications.  In a clever turn of phrase, referring to the magazine's editor Mark Lemon, someone noted that it "should be like a good punch mixture -- nothing without lemon" -- at which point one of the founders proclaimed, "A capital idea!  Let us call the paper Punch!"

The founders were well aware of the multiple connotations of the name. A Punch and Judy show was illustrated on the first cover and Mr. Punch was appropriated into the masthead of the magazine early on as a figure indicative of their goals.  Generally viewed as reflecting public opinion, the magazine soon became a standard of the middle class and eventually permeated all levels of society.  In line with the intent of the founders, Punch  became known for its piercing, but polite observations of English life.  This polite approach, harnessed with the ideal of high literary standards, made Punch acceptable for the British home, mixed company, respectable society, etc.  
 
    Wedgwood and their "Punch" Series

While Wedgwood's two Punch series--the majolica wares and the transfer-printed wares --are loosely related, they approach the Punch tradition quite differently.
 
By the 1870's competition among English producers of brightly colored majolica wares was fierce; the basis of that competition was novelty of design; and the pressure for new sources of inspiration was great. Wedgwood's majolica wares use the cast members of the puppet show as three-dimensional ornaments for their vessels--handles formed from Punch's head and hat, Judy's face at the base of a spout, full figures of Toby as support "feet." Wedgwood may have been motivated by the famous "Punch" bowl (supported by a full figure of the clown) produced by their competitor George Jones which seems to have slightly preceded Wedgwood's offerings on the market. In any case, the puppet motifs are employed purely for decorative effect with no added satirical intent.

          l

                Wedgwood Majolica Punch Bowl                 George Jones Majolica Punch Bowl

With the printed wares, however, the Punch images are unmistakingly viewed through the filter of the magazine. Even if the similarity in graphic style was not great enough to establish the link, the transfers include written labels that indicate that these are comic images that carry a message. While references do not establish whether Wedgwood's drawings were taken directly from the magazine or more generally inspired by its spirit, we do know that the pottery directly used material that had appeared in Punch for another pattern (John Leech's amusing "Fishing" series). Whatever the case, Mr. Punch appears on the Wedgwood wares in a guise wholly congruent to his role in the magazine: the champion of common sense doing battle, however tongue in cheek, with the follies of society. This additional content makes the transfer wares a rich subject for consideration.
 
Note. While the sculptural details of many of the transfer printed pieces, like our Toby-footed bowl, or the Punch cruet stopper illustrated by Batkin, seem perfectly adapted to a majolica glaze treatment, we have never never seen any such examples. Nor have we seen majolica shapes like our creamer with a printed decoration. The full relationship of these wares is still to be explored.
  
    The Punch Transfers
While the number of different Punch transfers is not great, together they create a coherent picture of Mr. Punch as a crusader against foolishness. We have identified four different tableaus, as well as two simpler secondary images.

In the first scene, Punch, with a grand flourish, ladles from a large punch bowl labeled "The Very Best Physic." The recipients of his largesse are four men identified by their costumes as representatives of the far reaches of the world. What exactly is the "best physic? The cup of worldwide brotherhood? Or perhaps--remembering what punch represented to the magazine founders--a good dose of satire?  This transfer is frequently accompanied by the first of the simpler images: the dog Toby, Punch's constant accessory, with serving tray and hot water.

Our second scene presents Punch as a sideshow huckster luring an unsuspecting crowd to a peepshow contraption with the sign "Look inside my little dears and you shall see what you shall see." We can be confident that the crowd will not be satisfied and that what is really on display here is the gullibility of the public.

Two additional vignettes present our friend in his most heroic, or at least pugnacious, guise. In the first he has entered the boxing ring. His hat set aside, he strips down to fighting garb ready to take on his foe. In the other, Punch appears at full tilt--whip and book in hand--violently chastising a clownish figure labeled "Cant and Folly" and a disreputable looking lout in uniform labeled "Official Misrule." In both scenes he is assisted by a most excited looking Toby.

Finally we have one more single image, most often seen on the reverse of objects: Punch victorious. He is mounted on Hector the horse and garbed in heroic (or merely imperial?) classical togs. Appropriately, closer examination reveals that Hector is really a jointed hobby horse. Mr. Punch raises his hand in triumph or maybe only to wave farewell.
 
    Why Punch?
 
Was Wedgwood making a social or political statement with these satirical designs? What seems to have been their intent? Thumbing through Batkin's chapter on Victorian tablewares may give us a clue.
 
Perusing the wide variety of printed designs employed by Wedgwood in the last decades of the nineteenth century, one is struck by how frequently the pottery sought its inspiration in the currents of what we call "pop culture" today. Patterns reflect the decorating trends current at the time from the mania for the Japanese to the revival of Adam style neoclassicism. Departing farther from the design arts, we see series based on boating, hunting and the perils of fishing. Literary subjects range from the children's story "Little Red Riding Hood" to the popular Scott novel Ivanhoe. Scenes of country life and children's play appear, and even patterns based on food preparation and farmyard poultry. What we can observe is that the decorative content of tablewares was increasingly important relative to mere function. We can also see that Wedgwood was engaging in some fairly aggressive and clever marketing to consumers with specific and varied interests.
 
So are we too far out of line if we compare Mr. Punch's appearance on Wedgwood wares to the images of Superman or Batman, lifted from the pages of twentieth century comics, to appear on the "Happy Meal" cups and packaging of fast food chains? After all, though he lacked the cap or cowl, our friend Punch was quite the popular crusader in his own way.
 
   Conclusion--Collecting Today. 
 
We have encountered three sorts of collectors who are interested in the Punch wares. There are those who are simply charmed by the decorative quality of the majolica or printed wares, and there are those who collect Punch and Judy items from other makers and in a variety of media.  (See ABC plate below.) Certainly we cannot overlook the omnivorous Wedgwood collectors seeking wide representation of the pottery's vast output (and perhaps no other pottery has inspired so many such passionate devotees.)

   /products/3162

In addition, we would like to suggest these wares to those interested in the rich tradition of British satire. What better way is there to add a three dimensional element to collections of prints and books. British satirists were unequalled at pointing out the pitfalls, blemishes and buffoonery of social life, the people, the crown and the government; in the forefront stand the writers and artists of Punch.  In many ways they speak to us clearly today, afterall, the magazine did not say its final farewell until 2002.

Later, Mark & Tim

 
Sources
 
We acknowledge once again what we find to be an indispensible resource: 
Batkin, Maureen; Wedgwood Ceramics 1846-1959: A new appraisal. London, Richard Dennis, 1982. 

Sources on majolica cited:
Dawes, Nicholas M. Majolica. New York, Crown, 1990.
Karmason, Marilyn G. and Stacke, Joan B. Majolica: A Complete History and Illustrated Survey. New York, Abrams, 1989.
 
For the history of the magazine Punch we are indebted to its official website.
http://www.punch.co.uk
 
Punch cover and images of majolica other than the featured item are from Google Images.