Teapots

British ships began regular sailing to China in the 17th century. They brought home an exotic drink called tea, which went on sale in London in 1658. The tea was taxed, first by a duty of 8 pence per gallon (in 1661) but from 1698, as this was difficult to administer, it was changed to 5 shillings in the pound. A pound of tea in the early 1700s cost the equivalent of a week's wages for a craftsman.

Tea at this time was very much the province of the wealthy. The mistress kept her tea locked up to prevent the servants stealing it and made it herself in front of her guests. The items associated with its drinking were rare and costly, often made of silver. Traditional drinking vessels were of silver, pewter, wood, horn, rough earthenware and glass. None of these were satisfactory for hot tea.

Delicate Chinese teawares were imported in the same ships with the tea. Porcelain was stowed low in the hold, since it could risk a wetting, while the tea stayed on top high and dry. Chinese porcelain was so prized that broken pieces were repaired, not thrown away.

Britain

British potters refined their product to match the imports, and even tried to make their decoration look Chinese. Chinese cups were handleless, and the British versions followed suit. The origin of saucers is unknown, but these appear about 1700 and are a western idea. The first British porcelain factories wanted to imitate Oriental porcelain but did not know how it was made. Their 'soft paste' porcelains were not as strong as Oriental 'hard paste'. A shop selling English porcelain advertised in 1760 that it would replace teapots 'if broke with hot water'.

Customers generally preferred Oriental porcelain, and most early British factories had to sell cheaper to survive. Some probably hoped to pass their products off as Chinese.

By the middle of the 18th century, tea drinking was established as part of the way of life of the wealthy and was being discovered by the fast-emerging middle classes. Servants would re-boil used tea-leaves.

Ale had been the ordinary British drink for centuries, but by 1784 poor grain harvests made it too expensive for the poor. So the tea dealers, led by Richard Twinning, persuaded William Pitt's government to cut the high tax on tea. Once tea was cheaper, people began to drink more and want larger teapots.

The Industrial Revolution saw great expansion in the pottery industry. In 1791 the East India Company stopped importing Chinese porcelains which gave a great boost to British potters, along with the general increase in drinking and the end of tax on tea.

The Georgian Tea Ceremony

A typical tea service in the early 1800s was made up of teapot and stand, sucrier (covered sugar basin), milk jug, slop basin, spoon tray, one dozen teacups (without handles), one dozen coffee cups, and one dozen saucers (which were used with both coffee and tea cups). A solid iron bar was heated in the fire and fitted down the middle of an urn to keep the water hot.

The mistress still made the tea in front of her guests and poured for them herself. Every time you put down your empty cup, the hostess would refill it for you unless you put the spoon in the cup to show you had had enough.

Styles

The earliest teapots were developed from Chinese wine pots. These had short straight spouts and no strainer. European potters followed the Chinese shapes. The standard globular form was well established by 1750s. Teapots usually followed the fashionable styles of the day.

By 1770 architects like Robert Adam were designing drawing room with decorations based on classical styles. The Greeks and Romans had not had teapots, but this did not prevent potters from inventing modern classical ones.

Potters often copied silver, because silver was more expensive. By 1780 silver teapots were being made out of sheet metal. It is easier to make a box shaped of sheet metal than a ball shape. These were copied by potters.

Teapots shapes began to change rapidly, and a fashionable new shape was introduced every few years. By 1830 the Romantic Movement was inspiring teapots to make dramatic gestures on the table. Fashionable late Victorians wanted decoration that had obviously been done by an artist, not a machine. In the 1930s teapots were lean, clean and functional, reflecting the architects latest blocks of flats.

Artificial

The novelty teapot is nothing new. 'Artificial' is nowadays an insult, but was once a term of praise. 18th century potters changed their traditional brown pots by imitating more precious materials - jasper and agate stone, tortoiseshell or porcelain. They also imitated nature with teapots in the shape and colours of fruit and vegetables.

The civil servant Henry Cole helped devise a competition to design a teapot in 1845, and won it himself. Reformers like Cole thought that most products were over-decorated. Since then many designers have told us that we ought to like things that are pure and simple. Novelty teapots were a reaction against this. They were not a new idea even in Cole's day but became more popular once design started to be treated as a serious moral issue.

The function of a teapot does not set tight limits on the shapes it can take, so it can be as wacky as the designer's imagination. Some big pots were used for punch not tea. Tiny teapots and teases were usually children's toys and not travellers' samples as is sometimes suggested.

Bibliography

Aguis P. China Teapots, Lutterworth, 1982.

Berthoud M and Miller P. An Anthology of British Teapots, Micawber, 1985.

Cushion J. Pottery and Porcelain Tablewares, Studio Vista, 1976.

Emmerson R. British Teapots and Tea Drinking.

Emmerson R. One for the Pot - booklet and exhibition catalogue, HMSO.

Miller P. Teapots and Coffee Pots, Midas, 1979.

Sandon H. Coffee Pots and Teapots, Bartholomew, 1973.

Street-Porter J & T. The British Teapot, Angus & Robertson, 1981.

Tilley F. Teapots and Tea, Ceramic Book Company, 1957.

Places to visit

The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery - Formerly The City Museum and Art Gallery - Best collection of Staffordshire Ceramics in the world. Lots of teapots on display in Ceramics gallery.

Bethesda Street
Hanley
Stoke-on-Trent
Tel 01782 232323

Castle Museum, Norwich
Hundreds of teapots in the Twinnings Tea  Gallery.

Norwich
Norfolk
NR1 3JU
Tel 01603 223624

Bramah Tea and Coffee Museum
The Clove Building
Maguire Street
London
SE1 2NQ