A brief history of Tea Pots
The Teapot as a European Invention
Though tea was originally Chinese, the teapot design of today is basically European. The first teapots created in Europe were of a heavy cast with short, straight, replaceable spouts. Other variations that occurred during this early period were octagonal and melon shaped teapots as well as "fantasy" teapots designed as plants or animals. Such teapots favored domestic forms such as squirrels and rabbits or newer "exotic" forms such as camels and monkeys. These early teapots were, however, viewed as failures due to the poor quality of clay and workmanship. Europe , though she had "designed" the teapot, lacked the porcelain technology to produce a quality teapot.
At the beginning of the eighteenth century, the East India Company recognized the growing demand for such items as teapots and began importation in larger numbers. The increased cargo served an additional function-that of ballast in the trade ships. The company commissioned china directly from Chinese artists and craftsmen, using patterns sent from England and geared to European tastes, stereotypes, and market values. Designs fell into four main areas: mock-ups of Oriental designs (such as "Blue Willow" and "The Tree of Life"), designs adapted from European prints (such as the famous Georgian "house" teapots), armorials (bearing the coat of arms for major European families), and the innovative teapots (such as those with the now standard spout drain on the interior of the teapot). Company directors were especially concerned that teapots not drip and stain the valuable linen that they also marketed.
A New Technology: Porcelain
In 1710 a major commercial porcelain breakthrough occurred in Europe . After many trial-and-error efforts, imperial craftsmen found the clay near Meissen , Germany , coupled with new technology, produced porcelain equal to the finest such items available from distant China . Nearby Dresden quickly became the center for fine European china. But by the mid-1700 the technique was being copied in England and France . As Baroque and Rococo designs began to appear, they were adapted into porcelain production. Though teapots largely remained globular in shape, some pear shaped ones were popular. Spouts were often shaped as dragons or other animals. Handles were elaborately embellished with scrolls and similar designs.
A New Market for Teapots
As Europe industrialized, a growing middle class developed. With cash increasingly available, this new group sought to copy the visual elements of the life style of the upper classes. This included the developing ritual of Afternoon Tea. As such, teapots in unheard of numbers were suddenly needed. Artist-merchants such as Josiah Wedgwood and Josiah Spode responded to that new market. Architects such as Robert Adams designed entire rooms (including the furniture and tea service to be used there) as "complete stages" on which enact a stylish lifestyle in this elegant century.
The Silver Tea Service
It is at this time (1730's) that the first silver service pots for tea were designed. Simple globular shaped designs soon gave way to straight-sided silver teapots. These in turn were replaced by the oval shaped teapots of the 1770's. The American patriot Paul Revere was the most famed silversmith of the young nation. Indeed, his favorite portrait shows him holding one such teapot. By the 1780's footed teapots appeared, designed to protect tabletops from heat scarring. Although pewter teapots appeared throughout the Georgian (Colonial Period) for those unable to afford silver teapots, they were seldom produced in any number after the 1790's. Reflecting the "classic" designs favored by the new French Republic , teapots were, for a short, but beautiful period, shaped as a drum. Porcelain historians have often wondered if this "drum" shape subconsciously reflected the Napoleonic Wars to soon roll across Europe .
Teapot Design Trends
Perhaps as a reaction of the mass bloodletting that occurred, tea china during the 1800's was an exercise in fantasy design. Beginning in the 1820's with Rococo, novelty was valued over taste and style. Every major trend in Victorian art and craft styles was reflected including:
- Renaissance
- Gothic
- Chinese
- Moorish
- Arts and Crafts Movement
- Japanese Arts
- Art Nouveau
20th Century Design
It may be human nature to react negatively against such a flood of embellishment. Designs at the beginning of the twentieth century returned to simpler forms. By the 1920's teapots were designed to be "functional", within the tradition of the architect and designer Corbusier, a major influence. Among the most notable of the teapots designed by this school were the "cube teapots", which were, as the name suggests, square.
The 1930's saw the advent of the Art Deco Movement. The machine was seen as an art object with teapots being designed during this period as race cars, railroad engines, airplanes, and even tanks. Few teapots were produced during World War II due to the absorption of all non-vital production into war efforts.
Teapots during the 1960's were functional, reflecting the current trend of "modernism". By the 1970's novelty teapots reappeared, this time as a variety of animals and even as space capsules. During the 1980's, elegance returned to the design of teapots, with many classic patterns from the 1700's and early 1800's being reproduced.
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