Teapot

1790-1810

Measurements

6-3/8 in x 9-3/4 in x 5-1/4 in (dia)

Materials

Enameled and glazed porcelain

Credit Line

Historic Odessa Foundation, The David Wilson Mansion, Inc.

Accession Number

1971.766

Inscription

A hand-written paper label on the outside bottom says, “7/10 1910 / Henderson / 002/$7.00.”

Condition Notes

A repaired break at rim of the pot leads into a stress crack that continues through the bottom edge.  The handle has a stress crack near the top, and the lid has a chip out of the rim

Provenance

Ex coll. Mrs. E. Tatnall (Mary Corbit) Warner.  According to an early accession card, the teapot was “on loan from Mrs. Earle R. Crowe, Wilmington, Del., to the David Wilson Mansion, Inc.”

Comments

The drum shape of this teapot and several other decorative features indicate its time of fabrication. Those features include the molded berry finial, the interlacing strap handle, and the shape of the spout.  The enamel and gilt decoration, both the neoclassical vase motif on opposite sides of the body and the blue bands with decorated borders, also signal the time of origin.  This teapot is similar to another with a history of ownership in the William Corbit family that now has a replacement handle made in the early 19th century.  (See accession no. 2016.68.)

This teapot retains a hand-written paper label on the outside bottom.  The label says “7/10 1910 / Henderson / 002/$7.00.”  Decoding it, it seems to record purchase of this teapot on July 10, 1910, from an individual named Henderson at a cost of $7.00. It may represent a personal acquisition of Mrs. E. Tatnall (Mary Corbit) Warner, who gathered Corbit and Wilson family objects but also bought items of interest to herself to add to those collections.