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| COLLECTING NOVELTY TEAPOTS |
WHEN TEA WAS FIRST INTRODUCED TO BRITAIN FROM CHINA IN THE MID 17TH CENTURY IT WAS EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE. DURING THE 19TH CENTURY, AFTER THE PRICE DROPPED,
DEMAND GREW FOR ATTRACTIVE TEAPOTS TO USE BOTH AT HOME AND IN THE NEW, FASHIONABLE TEA SHOPS THAT BEGAN TO PROLIFERATE TOWARDS THE END OF THE CENTURY. WHILE EARLY 18 L'H AND 19TH CENTURY STAFFORDSHIRE TEAPOTS MAY BE EXPENSIVE TO BUY,
A COLLECTION OF 21ST
CENTURY NOVELTY TEAPOTS NEED NOT COST A FORTUNE. UNUSUAL TEAPOTS ARE EAGERLY SOUGHT AFTER AND HAVE THE ADVANTAGE OF BEING BOTH FUNCTIONAL AND FUN TO COLLECT. 18TH CENTURY TEAPOTS
Imaginative and interesting teapots have been popular since the 1730s when Staffordshire potteries began to produce pots in the shapes of houses and animals including camels and squirrels.
The earliest known house teapot is believed to be one made in white salt-glaze stoneware based on a Georgian building, the Bid House in Burslem, home of John and Thomas Wedgwood c. 1750.
In 1759 Josiah Wedgwood and his partner, Thomas Whieldon, developed globular, green- glazed teapots realistically shaped into cauliflowers, cabbages, melons and pineapples which were copied by other factories.
While the earliest vegetable shaped teapots may be valued at £2,500-£3,000, such as one cauliflower pot which is in the collection at Teapot World, a collector recently bought a machine-made copy stamped 'Wedgwood', dating from the 1920s, for only £85.
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| COLLECTING NOVELTY TEAPOTS |
The Aesthetic teapot made by Royal Worcester c. 1880, satirised the Movement led by Oscar Wilde during a period in the 19th century when teapot designs became more bizarre and eccentric than ever before. Shaped like a man on one side and a woman on the other, their arms form the handle and spout.
Among the most coveted teapots of the 19th century are those made from moulded and richly glazed majolica which were produced by many factories including Minton, Wedgwood and George Jones.
Majolica was the term used by Minton to describe a range of brilliantly decorated lead glaze earthenware, fired at a high temperature, which was introduced at the Great exhibition of 1851.
One example of a highly detailed and extremely rare Minton teapot, dating from 1874, features a vulture attacking a snake. This teapot sold for a staggering £34,500 .
Recognising the popularity of majolica, and the fact that the originals are beyond most collectors
budgets, Royal Doulton have been producing limited edition copies since 1993. The first model was of Minton's majolica monkey, from 1875, and last year's was a tortoise which sold for £195.
20TH CENTURY: 1920S-1930S
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| COLLECTING NOVELTY TEAPOTS |
The height of the novelty teapot market during the 20th century was between the wars, when teapot design became very kitsch. The queen of Art Deco ceramics, Clarice Cliff, was not above making novelty teapots and a 'Bones the Butcher' teapot recently sold at Christie's for £1,725, even though the lid was damaged.
The first teapot shaped as a car was produced by James Sadler in the 1930s, along with trains and aeroplanes. Made in a variety of colours, the car is one of the most recognisable novelty pots with its pun registration 'OK T42' on the bumper.
Values vary considerably between £130 and over £1,000, depending on rarity of colour and condition. The pot was reintroduced last year as a limited edition of 100 racing green and 1,000 blue especially for the Millennium.
Totally Teapots Collectors Club have a few available in both colours with the added advantage of the teapot being personally signed by Eddie Sadler, who was responsible for commissioning the original design in 1935.
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| COLLECTING NOVELTY TEAPOTS |
20TH CENTURY: 1970S-1990S
A novelty design that has always raised a smile since it was first produced in the 1970s is Carlton's Walking Ware designed by Danka Napriokowska and Roger Michell of Lustre Pottery. Produced in a variety of colours, the price range for original pots which date from due 1970s, depending on condition and decoration, is between £80 and £120.
Between the 1970s and late 1980s, unusual and more frivolous teapots were made in small quantities by new potteries which were independent ol the major manufacturers.
Many of these pots are becoming very desirable because of their reasonable prices and the fact that tllgy should maintain their value. A teapot depicting Margaret Thatcher cost £20 when it was produced in the 1980s but expect to pay between £150 and £220 today.
Cardew Designs have been designing and manufacturing novelty teapots for around 20 years, led by designer Paul Cardew. The first company to start a club for dedicated teapot collectors around the world, Cardew Designs continues to go from strength to strength.
One desirable Cardew teapot is the tongue-in-cheek design, Punctualitea', made in 1993, which is now valued at £140. A 'Slot Machine' pot by Swineside Ceramics is now valued at £80.
If you come across a Golly' teapot, made for Robertsons Jam, it is worth buying but expect to pay up to £200. Two designs, including one showing him with a cricket bat, are in great demand while Carltonware's Dancing Golly' is extremely rare.
Another name to look out for is Carters Ceramic Designs. Tony Carter has been designing and making collectible teapots since 1978 at his pottery in Debenham, Suffolk. Retired teapot designs are highly sought-after, and current designs are also popular. His 'Poetry Book' teapot featuring a famous Shakespeare sonnet on the top 'book', the lid, is a particularly attractive design.
Today high street shops Past Times and Whittard also offer novelty teapots in their ranges, while new art pottery manufacturers such as Cosmic Design Works produce limited edition contemporary teapots. Novelty teapots are a collectable which can only grow in popularity.
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One of the more unusual teapot shapes produced during the
20th century was the Cube teapot. Patented by Robert Johnson in 1916 it
continued in production until 1968 and was still in use on the liner the QEII
as recently as the 1980s.
The Cube teapot was the world's largest selling
patented teapot and was made in metal, pottery and bone china, by Minton,
Wedgwood and Grimwades amongst others, under licence from Cube Teapots Limited
of Leicester.
Manufactured in great quantity these teapots were one of
the first truly disposable items. Once a pot was chipped or damaged it would be discarded, consequently some of those that survived are now reasonably priced collectables.
Simple utilitarian pots in monochrome earthenware can be found for under £50. Plant's Bird of Paradise' decorated bone china Cube teaset, dating from the late 1920s, has a value of £250 and is sometimes confused with Minton's Cuckoo' pattern. E. Brain's Foley Bone China supplied teasets in a shagreen effect one of which, also dating from the late 1920s, recently sold for £750
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