Getty Museum

Teapot

Date

1715–1720

Medium

Stoneware with a gilt metal chain and mount

Culture

German

Department

Decorative Arts

Institution

Getty Museum

Throughout the 1700s, tea was made in concentrated form and was very strong and quite bitter. It was then diluted with hot water. Because tea was so expensive and precious, people mainly served from small teapots such as this one and often reused their tea leaves. Johann Friedrich Böttger, the first European to develop hard-paste porcelain, began producing red stoneware in 1708. For only twenty years, the Meissen porcelain manufactory produced this extremely hard material. This teapot's form, polished surface, and cast floral decoration imitate contemporary silver designs.

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