A rare early Brunswick faience teapot
Teapot of octagonal section with an eagle's head spout, scroll handle and original lid with a stylised bud finial. The facets decorated with large acanthus scrolls alternating with ornamental flowers. The spout side decorated with a relief mascaron. Conjoined manganese VH and various illegible painters marks to vessel and lid. With some retouches, a crack running down from below the spout, and minor chips. H with lid 12.4 cm.
Attributed to the period of Heinrich Christoph von Horn, ca. 1720.
The form of this unusual vessel is based on a design by the Meissen porcelain manufactory described in the archival records as an eight-sided "tea botgen". The vessel was produced by the Meissen manufactory in several versions: In rough red Böttger stoneware, with polished sections, with additional gilding, and with black lacquer accents. The version decorated with elaborate polychrome and gold lacquer exists only on a few examples and was probably intended exclusively for the royal court. This example of the design in Brunswick faience is extremely rare.
Literature
This Böttger model is published in Boltz, Steinzeug und Porzellane der Böttgerperiode – Die Inventare und die Ostermesse des Jahres 1719, in: Keramos 167/168/2000, illus. 135, p. 127, 13.14. DSL 14 „1 achtpassigtes TheeBotgen mit der Adler Schnautze“.
An identical faience version is housed in the Städtisches Museum Braunschweig illus. in Spies, Braunschweiger Fayencen, Braunschweig 1971, p. 308, no. 53.
A further vessel of identical form on bun feet attributed to Nuremberg and to Johann Valentin Bontemps in Glaser, Nürnberger Fayencen. Geschichte und Erzeugnisse einer Manufaktur in der Reichsstadt, Nuremberg 2017, no. 63.