Teapot and Stand

Founded in 1759 by ceramic innovator and businessman Josiah Wedgwood I (1730–1795), the Wedgwood company enjoyed great success under his direction and into the early nineteenth century, but the venerable British firm was struggling by the 1840s. The leadership of Francis Wedgwood (1800–1888) and his three sons, Godfrey (1833–1905), Clement (1840–1889), and Lawrence (1844–1913), gradually shifted the pottery’s fortunes in the decades that followed. One key advance was the development of a superior line of majolica, which Wedgwood introduced in about 1860 and continued to produce until 1918. During the peak years of its production, from 1865 to 1890, the ware formed a substantial percentage of the firm’s output, and by the 1870s, Wedgwood was manufacturing more majolica than any other kind of ornamental pottery.

Wedgwood engaged leading artists and designers of the day, both as company staff and on a freelance basis, to realize distinctive wares of the highest quality. Its brilliant glazes and the precision of its modeling were celebrated not only at home but also abroad—indeed, the firm enjoyed a substantial export market. Although Wedgwood produced a few grand exhibition pieces in the brightly glazed earthenware, it was first and foremost a pioneer in the manufacture of majolica tableware and other household items, which it sold at prices accessible to the growing middle classes. Tea wares with novel decorations, like this teapot and stand, formed a significant part of the majolica Wedgwood offered.

The earliest majolica produced by Wedgwood was made of what Lawrence Wedgwood described as “plate clay fired hard in the biscuit” and decorated in the simplest of manners with a maximum of four colors. Writing in 1865, he recorded the glazing process for mottled majolica, which would become a specialty of the firm, as follows: “In the ordinary green-brown-yellow majolica, the paintress first puts on the green, then splodges of yellow & then splodges of brown & then green again…. Majolica is not such a very easy thing to paint as one would think as they have to be careful where they put the colour in order that the pieces shall not be too uniform & also that the col[our] be in good places” These mottled glazes were soon perfected by the company, as we can see in decoration on this teapot and stand, which were made within the first five years of majolica production by Wedgwood.

Inscription

Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object. Learn more about provenance at the Walters.

Deborah and Philip English, Baltimore, by 1996, [mode of acquisition unknown]; given to the Walters Art Museum, 2024.