Image ID: 21168

Charles Thompson's Teapot

Courtesy of Mansfield Museum and Art Gallery

Mansfield
England

The teapot seems of an unusual design; Oriental, possibly designed in the Chinese style with bamboo patterned panels on the sides, possibly made out of pewter or copper as the handle is bound, so as to protect the pourer from the heat of the pot. By the 1780's footed teapots appeared, designed to protect tabletops from heat scarring. Although pewter teapots appeared throughout the Georgian period for those unable to afford silver teapots, they were seldom produced in any number after the 1790's. Charles Thompson was a benefactor of Mansfield Town, a cloth merchant who had travelled in Persia and had settled in Lisbon where a terrible earthquake occurred in 1755. After witnessing the scene from nearby hills, Thompson stated that he saw the city 'rocking and staggering below', he returned to the city, recovered his money and sailed for home. Each day afterwards he would walk to a site overlooking Mansfield which reminded him of the hills above Lisbon. Perhaps he acquired the teapot in Lisbon from Portuguese traders with the East? There is an interesting photograph of his will which recounts his precise burial instructions, See NCCW000453

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Keywordsteateapotdecorativeartsorientaljapanesebambooknoblidstandwarmerbookpictureframe

Mansfield Library