Teapot, Shape Number 165

Based in England’s Staffordshire potteries district, William Brownfield & Son(s), a large manufacturer of stoneware, earthenware, and porcelain, produced majolica of outstanding quality throughout the 1870s and 1880s. In 1872, the firm hired Louis Jahn (1839–1911) as its first art director. Jahn, born in Germany, was one of several Continental artists who first came to England to work at Minton & Co., and he was instrumental in directing Brownfield’s product expansion. Like other well-capitalized Staffordshire firms, Brownfield employed celebrated freelance sculptor-modelers such as Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse (1824–1887) and Hugues Protât (born 1816; active 1835–90) to design objects for both general production and exhibition display, shifting the firm’s reputation for moderately priced, useful domestic wares (which were crucial to its success) to what one contemporary reviewer deemed “the highest region of fine art in ceramics.” The export trade was an important part of Brownfield’s sales strategy, and to that end, the firm advertised extensively and participated in the international exhibitions of the period.

Brownfield further distinguished itself by making odd or unattractive, sometimes even disturbing models, tapping into Victorian dark humor and the macabre as a way to differentiate its output from that of the many other Staffordshire manufacturers competing in the same crowded market. Majolica teapots in the form of a fish were made by several firms, including Minton and Adams & Bromley. The Brownfield example considered here plays with Victorian ideas of the monstrous—fusing a grotesque European dolphin with a Japanese carp and wave, the curling crest of which forms the handle of the vessel.

Brownfield regularly chose to copyright its designs by listing these models with the British Designs Registry. This government entity was created by the United Kingdom’s 1839 Designs Registration Act, which protected manufacturers from unauthorized copying of “ornamental” designs that were registered. As part of submitting a design for registration, a manufacturer had to include a “representation” of the design, often a drawing or, as time went on, a photograph. These representations are now preserved at the UK’s National Archives and provide an invaluable source of information about Victorian design. Brownfield registered this teapot design on October 31, 1876.

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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.

Collection of Deborah and Philip English, Baltimore, by 1998 [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; given to the Walters Art Museum, 2025.