Posted By: Mark
Posted on: 2009-11-13 22:34:45

Featured Item:
Miniature Eighteenth-Century Salt Glazed Teapot

As we considered this new phase of our website, one additon which we thought would add to the Seekers experience was a recurring "Featured Item".  For our first featured item, the piece we immediately thought of was the Miniature 18th Century Salt Glaze Teapot discussed below.   
 

http://seekersantiques.com/products/2812

Dimensions: Height 3 in., Width 4 1/2 in.,

 Diameter 2 1/2 in.
 
Price $1750.00
 
Dates:  1740- Mid 1750's

Dating This Piece
 
 White salt glaze was one of the first bodies developed by the English potters to compete with the booming trade in oriental porcelain.   A two handled cup incised with the date 1720 in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri is the first dated evidence we have of their success.  Development continued until around 1740 when product quality, manufacturing capabilities and emerging business acumen seem to have coincided.  The ensuing trend captured the public's fancy until the late 1770's when it was superseded by Josiah Wedgwood's creamware. 
 
While we may take teapots for granted today, teapots did not exist before tea became a staple in the late seventeenth century.  According to Philip Miller and Michael Berthoud   An Anthology of British Teapots (1985 Micawber Publications), the first pots were imported from the orient.  These pots, probably derived from vessels used for serving wine required one adaptation, the addition of a strainer at the base of the spout. 

By the second decade of the eighteenth century a round pot with a loop handle and straight spout had beome the standard shape for imported porcelain pots.  This shape became the prototype for many of the first ceramic teapots produced in England.  Miller and Berthoud illustrate one of these English pots in white salt glaze very similar to this little pot which they date c. 1745 (Plate 108, Page 18).  
 
Styles of teapots, following the whims of the wealthy and their desire for novelty, changed relatively quickly with later teapots of the 1750's-60's taking on fantastic shapes, such as animals or buildings.  Technology was also in play here as techniques were developed for potting, enamel decoration and even (in the case of plates) transfer decoration.  Bearing this in mind, we date this pot toward the early end of production from the 1740's through the mid 1750's.  
 
The Body & The Potter  

As pointed out earlier, the white salt glaze body was an eighteenth century development precipitated by opportunity.  Actually it was a refinement of an earlier salt glaze stoneware body which had been brought from Germany sometime in the seventeenth century.  The issue was refining the body to fire from a standard utilitarian brown to the white color desired to compete with the porcelain body. 
 
Even with this new glaze and changes in technology however the presence of the individual potter is still very evident in this piece.  Inside the pot, one can feel the ridges made by the potters fingers as he pulled the pot up from the lump of clay on his wheel.  As one feels around the inside, one realizes that the little foot is actually hollowed out on the wheel from the inside.  This is not the work of a rude tradesman, but the work of a potter of skill and some awareness of the style dictated by urban taste.  The very fine, straw-like spout, slightly arced is actually a hollow spout, no make-do approximation for a look.  Four little holes pierce the body from the outside where the spout attaches creating the strainer necessary for tea.  The round ear-shape handle looks back to its oriental origins as well as forward to its counterpart in Worcester's porcelains some twenty to thirty years later.  

Decoration is minimal, but looking back from today, it seems perfect.  Using a stylus, the potter has inscribed two lines in the wet clay on the shoulder just below the collar and another just above the foot.  The potter has even finished the lid using a tool to rout out an edge detail on his wheel.  Finally, the little spool shape knop --- this knop is the genesis of many of the knops found on English teapots for a century and more to come.  

As one looks at this pot and handles it, one senses a kinship with the potter.  He is working at a time when manufacturing processes are advancing at a seemingly breakneck rate.  Change is everywhere, in handling materials, glaze and technological developments.  Sales and distribution are expanding beyond the local traditional craft-oriented scale.  Even the welfare of the workers has started to be considered.  Yet one aspect of the process remains unharnessed, the fire.  

In order to finish the piece, salt was added to the kiln which at 1180 degrees C vaporized and condensed on the surface creating a glassy white, slightly orange peel textured surface.  This firing temperature also created fusion of the materials in the body causing it to become harder, as they strived to approximate a hardness similar to porcelain.  However, firing was still a risky process.  Control was mostly about the combination of firing materials, instinct, the experience of the man in charge of the kiln and faith.   

 As one handles this piece, one almost senses the potter's presence as the kiln is opened, so much could happen.  The pot did not implode or explode. The thin graceful spout remained attached, did not sag, fired hollow.  The lid did not warp.  The little spool sits straight.  The glaze is clean, no discoloration, no kiln debris, perfect.  The piece has come through the fire --- successfully.    
 
The Miniature Aspect 

There is one additional facet which makes this piece special, the miniature aspect. 
 
Miniatures are found scattered throughout the world of English ceramics (and even occasionally in American Art Pottery). Seriousness ranges from children's toys to seaside souvenirs tossed off for the holiday trade to items approaching the status of gems.  We know miniatures were sought by adults in the eighteenth century as evidenced in known examples of adult "toy" tea pieces by Caughley and Bow.  However, this piece has us a bit puzzled.  The degree of finesse in the potting indicates that this was neither tourist trinket nor child's toy.  There is  a seriousness here equivalent to that of a Caughley or Bow miniature porcelain tea piece. Some might whisper that hallowed term, salesman's sample, however we won't even start to venture into the world of eighteenth century sales practices.  In the spout and inside around the strainer, we note the presence of tannin indicating that at one time the piece has poured hot tea, but when?  The closest white salt glaze example we have seen is a later form of similar size in the more fantastic style of the 1750's-60's.  The quality of the potting of this piece argues for the status of little treasure, however the simplicity leaves one in wonder.  We find no other examples to guide us in our reference books.  Whatever the case, the miniature aspect must continue to hold its secret ---- and fascinate for a long time to come. 

Conclusion

  As you have read this, you may have sensed that this writer really likes Eighteenth Century English White Salt Glaze.  Actually I like ceramics period.  More than furniture and certainly more than fabric or paper, ceramics freeze a moment in time.  What I find even headier however are those examples of first efforts which ceramics capture so well, the early starts and stops, that sense of adventure, uncertainty and just a bit of angst which is found in the first examples of all ceramics.  That sense is present in most eighteenth century English ceramics.  Afterall, the final prize, the development of an acceptable porcelain body would not come along until the 1790's.  The piece at hand, even in that world however stands out, the questions as to its purpose, the early date its simple style would indicate, the presence of the potter in the piece.  This piece came along just as the world was changing and by its simplicity, it reflects that change.  Janus like, it looks back to the wares of the local potter yet forward by virtue of its style, material and the industry it represents  --- and all of this you can catch, in a moment, in the palm of your hand. 
 
Later,  Mark 

(In addition to Miller and Berthoud cited above, sources include Lockett and Halfpenny, Stonewares & Stone Chinas of Northern England to 1851, City Museum and Art Gallery, Stoke on Trent, 1982 and Emmerson, British Teapots & Tea Drinking 1700-1850, HMSO Publications, 1992.)   

Next »