Domestic Furnishings

Washboards, armchairs, lamps, and pots and pans may not seem to be museum pieces. But they are invaluable evidence of how most people lived day to day, last week or three centuries ago. The Museum's collections of domestic furnishings comprise more than 40,000 artifacts from American households. Large and small, they include four houses, roughly 800 pieces of furniture, fireplace equipment, spinning wheels, ceramics and glass, family portraits, and much more.

The Arthur and Edna Greenwood Collection contains more than 2,000 objects from New England households from colonial times to mid-1800s. From kitchens of the past, the collections hold some 3,300 artifacts, ranging from refrigerators to spatulas. The lighting devices alone number roughly 3,000 lamps, candleholders, and lanterns.

TITLE: Meissen: Part of a tea service (Hausmalerin)MAKER: Meissen ManufactoryPHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain, hard paste (overall material)MEASUREMENTS: Tea bowls: H. 1¾" 4.5 cmChocolate cup: 3⅛" 8 cmSaucer: D. 5⅛" 13.1 cmTeapot: H.
Description
TITLE: Meissen: Part of a tea service (Hausmalerin)
MAKER: Meissen Manufactory
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain, hard paste (overall material)
MEASUREMENTS: Tea bowls: H. 1¾" 4.5 cm
Chocolate cup: 3⅛" 8 cm
Saucer: D. 5⅛" 13.1 cm
Teapot: H. 5" 12.8 cm
OBJECT NAME: Part of a tea service
PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany
DATE MADE: 1730
SUBJECT: The Hans Syz Collection
Art
Domestic Furnishing
Industry and Manufacturing
CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection
ID NUMBER: 1987.0896. 34 A,B; 36 a,b; 37 a,b
COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 227 A,B; 228 a,b; 229 a,b
ACCESSION NUMBER:
(DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center)
MARKS: Crossed swords in underglaze blue, except chocolate cup, which is unmarked.
PURCHASED FROM: Minerva Antiques, New York, 1943.
Thw teapot is from parts from a tea service in the Smithsonian’s Hans Syz Collection of Meissen Porcelain. Dr. Syz (1894-1991) began his collection in the early years of World War II, when he purchased eighteenth-century Meissen table wares from the Art Exchange run by the New York dealer Adolf Beckhardt (1889-1962). Dr. Syz, a Swiss immigrant to the United States, collected Meissen porcelain while engaged in a professional career in psychiatry and the research of human behavior. He believed that cultural artifacts have an important role to play in enhancing our awareness and understanding of human creativity and its communication among peoples. His collection grew to represent this conviction.
The invention of Meissen porcelain, declared over three hundred years ago early in 1709, was a collective achievement that represents an early modern precursor to industrial chemistry and materials science. The porcelains we see in our museum collections, made in the small town of Meissen in Germany, were the result of an intense period of empirical research. Generally associated with artistic achievement of a high order, Meissen porcelain was also a technological achievement in the development of inorganic, non-metallic materials.
The parts of this tea service were made in the Meissen manufactory but painted outside by independent artists. Hausmalerei is a German word that means in literal translation ‘home painting’, and it refers to the practice of painting enamels and gold onto the surface of blank ceramics and glass in workshops outside the manufactory of origin. Beginning in the seventeenth century the work of the Hausmaler varied in quality from the outstanding workshops of Nuremberg, Augsburg, and Breslau (now Wroclaw in Poland), to the less skilled efforts of amateur artists. Early Meissen porcelain was sought after for this purpose, and wealthy patrons of local enameling and gilding workshops purchased undecorated porcelain, often of out-moded or inferior quality, which was then enameled with subjects of their choice. Hausmalerei was at first acceptable to the early porcelain manufactories like Meissen and Vienna, and Meissen sent blank porcelain to Augsburg workshops for decoration, but as the market became more competitive they tried to eradicate the practice. It was a temptation for Meissen porcelain painters to take on extra work as Hausmaler to augment their low pay, and the manufactory cautioned or even imprisoned them if Hausmalerei activity was suspected or discovered.
The tea service was painted in Augsburg in the 1720s.Two hundred years earlier Augsburg was the center of international merchant banking, and it is no coincidence that it was also a center for goldsmithing work of exceptional quality. Although no longer a powerful city in the eighteenth century, Augsburg was still renowned for its high quality artisan trades in precious metals, book production, and textiles. Hausmalerei was one among many subsidiary trades that met demands from other workshops, individual clients, and new manufactories like that of Meissen.
This Meissen tea service was probably painted by Anna Elizabeth Wald (b. 1696), and perhaps by her sister Sabina Hosennestel (1706-1782) as well. The two women were the daughters of the gold worker and Hausmaler Johann Aufenwerth (d.1728) but it is difficult to distinguish their styles one from the other. Another sister, Johanna Warmberger (1693-1772), also worked in the family business. The sisters specialized in decorative gilding and enamel painting of chinoiseries like the images seen here of two gentlemen smoking and taking tea in a garden.
Sabina Hosennestel married the tradesman and coffee-house owner, Isaac Hosennestel in 1731. It is thought that some of the porcelain vessels painted by the Aufenwerth sisters were intended for use in the coffee-house alongside Chinese and Japanese imported porcelain, especially the tea bowls. There were five other coffee-houses in Augsburg in the first half of the eighteenth century.
Other pieces from this service are in the Forsythe Wickes Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (inv. Numbers 65.2076-65.2080).
Ducret, S., 1971, Meissner Porzellan bemalt in Augsburg, 1718 bis um 1750, Band 1 Goldmalereien und bunte Chinoiserien.
On Hausmaler see Ulrich Pietsch, 2011, Early Meissen Porcelain: The Wark Collection from The Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens, pp. 43-46.
Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert, 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 506-507.
Location
Currently on loan
date made
ca 1720-1725
1720-1725
maker
Meissen Manufactory
ID Number
1987.0896.37ab
catalog number
1987.0896.37ab
accession number
1987.0896
collector/donor number
229
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
early nineteenth century
ID Number
CE.P-97ab
catalog number
P-97ab
accession number
225282
Oblong, bulbous teapot with an oval, high-domed, hinged lid topped by a lion's mask knop and four ball-and-claw feet attached to the rounded bottom by large acanthus leaves; engraved "EL" in conjoined foliate script on one side.
Description
Oblong, bulbous teapot with an oval, high-domed, hinged lid topped by a lion's mask knop and four ball-and-claw feet attached to the rounded bottom by large acanthus leaves; engraved "EL" in conjoined foliate script on one side. Seamed body has convex and concave bands below its flared top. Bracket-top, C curve handle with swelled grip is pinned into ivory insulators and cylindrical sockets. Seamed S curve spout has a D-shaped, flared lip. Underside of bottom is struck at center "HUTTON" in raised serif letters in a rectangle flanked by standing spreadwing eagles facing right with heads turned left in horizontal ovals.
Maker is Isaac Hutton (1766-1855) of Albany, NY; working, 1790-1817.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1815
ID Number
DL.383532
catalog number
383532
accession number
162866
Plain, compressed globular teapot with equal-height, incurved neck and pedestal base and creased, tapered shoulder and underbelly. Wide-rimmed, bell-domed, hinged lid is topped by button knop. Black-japanned, spurred, S- and C-curve handle is pinned into leafy spiral sockets.
Description
Plain, compressed globular teapot with equal-height, incurved neck and pedestal base and creased, tapered shoulder and underbelly. Wide-rimmed, bell-domed, hinged lid is topped by button knop. Black-japanned, spurred, S- and C-curve handle is pinned into leafy spiral sockets. S-scroll spout with D-shaped lip, slight crease on face and rounded belly. Plain body has a finely turned, tinned interior and is perforated at spout. Underside of flat bottom is struck "[J.] D.LOCKE / [N]EW YORK" in rectangle and "N\o. 15" with "1854", all in roman letters.
Maker is J. D. Locke of New York, NY; working 1835-1860. Mold appears identical to that used for teapot DL*300859.0031 by Josiah Danforth of Middletown, CT, 1821-circa 1843.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1854
ID Number
DL.59.0608
catalog number
59.0608
accession number
219034
Raised, rectangular, boat-shaped teapot on short flared rectangular base with four ball feet; engraved on one side with a wreath of oak leaves and acorns above the inscription "Com. O.H.PERRY / CONQUERED the ENEMY, on LAKE ERIE, / Septem. 10\th/.
Description
Raised, rectangular, boat-shaped teapot on short flared rectangular base with four ball feet; engraved on one side with a wreath of oak leaves and acorns above the inscription "Com. O.H.PERRY / CONQUERED the ENEMY, on LAKE ERIE, / Septem. 10\th/. 1813.", and on the other "PRESENTED / by the Citizens of / BOSTON." Domed and flared rectangular hinged lid is topped by a cast rectangular finial; matching upper body connects to the stepped-ogee top portion of the bulbous lower body by a die-rolled band of roses. Gadrooning at middle of finial, edge of base, and tops of both rectangular handle sockets; die-rolled band of eight-petaled flowers at rectangular rim. C-curve handle carved with volute for top and band of pointed leaves at base. Flat-sided S-curve spout with oval shell on its square lip. Underside of rounded bottom scratched "27,,12" at spout end; centerpoint visible. No other marks. Few dents in body. Part of tea and coffee service, 1985.0121.01-.07.
Maker is Jesse Churchill (1773-1819) and Daniel Treadwell (1791-1872) of Boston, MA; dates in partnership given as 1805-1813 and 1809-1819.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1813-1814
ID Number
1985.0121.01
catalog number
1985.0121.01
accession number
1985.0121
Japanned, cylindrical oval teapot with a triangular, hinged lid topped by a triple-scroll loop at front, a tapered D- or ear-shaped strap handle, and straight, tapered spout placed low on the perforated body.
Description
Japanned, cylindrical oval teapot with a triangular, hinged lid topped by a triple-scroll loop at front, a tapered D- or ear-shaped strap handle, and straight, tapered spout placed low on the perforated body. Body and spout have soft-soldered lapped seams; flat bottom with projecting, folded edge. Painted decoration features a right-leaning, red, circular flower with yellow dotted center and thinly-painted white and alizarin petals on a yellow stem with yellow curlicues and berries. A blended blue to yellow or white daisy is at top right. Yellow leaves with red veins, and green leaves with yellow veins. A yellow-dotted red ribbon borders shoulder; red brushwork covers lid. No marks.
Attributed to the Stevens Tinshop of Stevens Plains (now part of Portland), ME, circa 1800-1842.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1800 - 1842
ID Number
1978.0119.09
accession number
1978.0119
catalog number
1978.0119.09
Pear-shaped or "Queen Anne" teapot on short foot ring with tall, bell-domed, hinged lid topped by wood button knop; upper part of hinge is a flat, rectangular block. Spurred, S-curve handle has cylindrical sockets; faceted, S-scroll spout has flat, horizontal oval lip.
Description
Pear-shaped or "Queen Anne" teapot on short foot ring with tall, bell-domed, hinged lid topped by wood button knop; upper part of hinge is a flat, rectangular block. Spurred, S-curve handle has cylindrical sockets; faceted, S-scroll spout has flat, horizontal oval lip. Lid decorated with three sets of scored lines and roulette work at edge. Body perforated at spout. Underside of flat bottom struck with an incuse "X" above maker's touch mark; inside has spiral turning mark and possibly an effaced touch at center.
Maker is Thomas Danforth Boardman (1784-1873) of Litchfield and Hartford, CT; working, 1804-circa 1860.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1804-1808
ID Number
1986.0027.47
catalog number
1986.0027.47
accession number
1986.0027
Barrel-shaped teapot with wide-rimmed, bell-domed, hinged lid topped by disk-and-ball knop on a flared and molded circular base. Body triple-scored at shoulder and bottom with molded midband at seam. Black-japanned, spurred C-curve handle with short cylindrical sockets.
Description
Barrel-shaped teapot with wide-rimmed, bell-domed, hinged lid topped by disk-and-ball knop on a flared and molded circular base. Body triple-scored at shoulder and bottom with molded midband at seam. Black-japanned, spurred C-curve handle with short cylindrical sockets. S-curve spout has an elongated D-shaped lip, faceted face and rounded belly. Body perforated at spout. Inside of flat, inset bottom struck with circular touch mark of "A. GRISWOLD" with spreadwing eagle, body facing right and head turned left.
Maker is Ashbil (or Ashbel) Griswold (1784-1853); working, circa 1802-1842. Trained with Thomas Danforth III as a pewterer; opened a shop in Meriden in 1808 and expanded into producing britannia wares at an early date, establishing Meriden as a major manufacturing center of pewter, britannia and plated goods. Was one of the founding partners of the Meriden Britannia Co. in 1852.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1820-1835
ID Number
DL.300859.0029
catalog number
300859.0029
accession number
300859
Tapered oval teapot with ribbed sides, tapered spout and low-domed, hinged lid topped by circular, pierced, leafy knop. Spurred, D- or ear-shaped handle has graduated dots below thumb piece, ivory-colored insulators and trumpet-shaped, gadrooned struts. Body perforated at spout.
Description
Tapered oval teapot with ribbed sides, tapered spout and low-domed, hinged lid topped by circular, pierced, leafy knop. Spurred, D- or ear-shaped handle has graduated dots below thumb piece, ivory-colored insulators and trumpet-shaped, gadrooned struts. Body perforated at spout. Underside of flat bottom is struck incuse "4 / A1 / 416". Part of teapot, sugar bowl and creamer set, 1991.0825.05-.07.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1860s
ID Number
1991.0825.05
catalog number
1991.0825.05
accession number
1991.0825
Vase-shaped teapot with an S-curved, bird's-head spout, high strap handle wrapped in green leather, flared base, and removable cover with fluted melon knop. Bands of acanthus leaves border cover, shoulder and base. Raised script letters "MG" cast on underside of base.
Description
Vase-shaped teapot with an S-curved, bird's-head spout, high strap handle wrapped in green leather, flared base, and removable cover with fluted melon knop. Bands of acanthus leaves border cover, shoulder and base. Raised script letters "MG" cast on underside of base. No other marks.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1800-1900
ID Number
DL.311687
catalog number
311687
accession number
64443
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1763 -1774
maker
Meissen Manufactory
ID Number
CE.P-716Bab
accession number
225282
catalog number
P-716Bab
Oblong, boat-shaped teapot with repoussé chased bands of roses, C scrolls, thistles and clover or shamrocks on an oval foot ring with four cast shell feet.
Description
Oblong, boat-shaped teapot with repoussé chased bands of roses, C scrolls, thistles and clover or shamrocks on an oval foot ring with four cast shell feet. Flared top has a rectangular, tiered, hinged lid topped by rectangular wood knop; spurred D- or ear-shaped wood handle has a leafy volute for upper socket and cylindrical lower socket; and bellied S-curve spout has a serpentine inside face and D-shaped, notched lip. Body perforated at spout. Knop and handle painted black. Underside struck incuse "DIXON & S[ON]" in serif letters and "6". From a four-piece coffee and tea service, DL*393313A-D.
Maker is James Dixon & Son of Sheffield, England, circa 1823-1835. Started as Dixon & Smith (James Dixon and Thomas Smith) in 1806, succeeded by James Dixon & Son in circa 1823 when James's eldest son, William Frederick Dixon, became his partner; renamed James Dixon & Sons when another son, James Willis Dixon, joined business around 1835 (a third son and son-in-law entered partnership around time when James Dixon, Sr. retired in 1842). Became James Dixon & Sons Ltd. in 1920 and has undergone several additional changes in owner and name since 1930. Company was a major manufacturer of Britannia and, later, silver and plated wares.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1825
ID Number
DL.393313A
catalog number
393313A
accession number
208876
Plain, compressed globular teapot with equal-height, incurved neck and pedestal base and creased, tapered shoulder and underbelly. Wide-rimmed, bell-domed, hinged lid is topped by button knop. Spurred, S- and C-curve handle is pinned into leafy spiral-scroll sockets.
Description
Plain, compressed globular teapot with equal-height, incurved neck and pedestal base and creased, tapered shoulder and underbelly. Wide-rimmed, bell-domed, hinged lid is topped by button knop. Spurred, S- and C-curve handle is pinned into leafy spiral-scroll sockets. S-curve spout has angled D-shaped lip, flat face and rounded belly. Body has a finely turned, tinned interior and is perforated at spout. Underside of flat bottom struck "[J.] DANFORTH" in rectangle and "N\o. 14" in sawtooth rectangle, both in roman letters.
Maker is Josiah Danforth (1803-1872) of Middletown, CT; working, 1821-circa 1843. Mold appears identical to that used for teapot DL*59.0608 by J. D. Locke of New York, NY, 1835-1860.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1821-ca 1843
ID Number
DL.300859.0031
catalog number
300859.0031
accession number
300859
Raised circular urn-shape teapot with double-flared or -trumpeted, hinged lid topped by a large cast ball on a flared circular pedestal atop a square base with applied sides; one side of body is engraved with a large shaded foliate script "G".
Description
Raised circular urn-shape teapot with double-flared or -trumpeted, hinged lid topped by a large cast ball on a flared circular pedestal atop a square base with applied sides; one side of body is engraved with a large shaded foliate script "G". Beading at edges of lid, base of almost flat, incurved neck, top and bottom of pedestal, face and back of the S-curve spout and at tops of the cylindrical sockets, into which is pinned a C-curve handle with scrolled waterleaf. Body perforated at spout. Outside of base opposite monogram is struck "I•M\c/.Mullin" in raised italic roman letters in a rectangle. Inside of lid incised "oz / 22= dwt / 13". No marks on underside. Part of a six-piece coffee and tea service, DL*037807-DL*037812.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1797
ID Number
DL.037809
catalog number
037809
accession number
117389
This teapot comes from the Alfred Duane Pell Collection in the National Museum of American History, and it is not the kind of luxury article we usually associate with the Sèvres Manufactory.
Description
This teapot comes from the Alfred Duane Pell Collection in the National Museum of American History, and it is not the kind of luxury article we usually associate with the Sèvres Manufactory. In 1795, following the fall and execution of Maximillian Robespierre, France put behind it the horrific year known as the Reign of Terror (September 1793-July 1794), but the country was in a state of economic ruin. The Sèvres Manufactory, situated to the west of Paris towards Versailles, lost royal and aristocratic patronage when the First Republic was declared in 1792, but despite its royal connection the manufactory was saved from closure when the revolutionary National Convention declared that Sèvres porcelain was “one of the glories of France.” Without royal support the manufactory turned to the production of luxury porcelain for foreign markets, and for the domestic market items like this teapot, decorated with emblems affirming revolutionary ideals of liberty, equality, and justice.
The Sèvres Manufactory was then a close community of craft workers, mechanics, and artists, all of whom lived in housing on the manufactory site or close to it. Now a suburb of Paris, eighteenth-century Sèvres was then rural, and a better place to live than in the crowded and unsanitary quarters of the city. Given that the Manufactory was owned by the monarch, and therefore symbolized the institution hated and overthrown by the revolutionaries it is astounding it survived at all. In the chaos that ensued once the Revolution began most Sèvres workers stayed were they were and continued to produce porcelain, but in politically divisive and partisan times there was distrust and uncertainty.
Painted on its surface in enamels colors on one side is the emblem for liberty, the Phrygian cap seen resting on the triangle of equity. The scarlet Phrygian cap adopted during the French Revolution as an emblem of liberty, remains closely associated with France today. The liberty cap has its origins in antiquity with the Phrygian cap seen on this teapot representing to the Greeks the people of Phrygia in Asia Minor, present day Turkey, and it is recognized by its peak, softly folded forwards over the head. It is thought that the cap may have been worn by Phrygians taken captive by the Greeks. In revolutionary America, and in French engravings of heroes of the American Revolution a red soft-peaked cap known as the pileus represented freedom from British tyranny. Of ancient Roman origin the pileus was worn by former slaves given their freedom under the Roman system of manumission. Representing both the captive and the freed slave the Phrygian cap and the Roman pileus became interchangeable in the eighteenth-century emblem of liberty, but for the young American Republic the pileus in particular was a troubling image for those who contested the existence of slavery in the southern states.
On the other side of the teapot is the emblem for the authority of the First French Republic, established in 1792. Known as the Fasces of Roman antiquity this emblem consists of a bundle of wooden rods from which an axe head protrudes representing the unity and judicial authority of the Roman Republic. It was carried before a Roman consul or magistrate by bodyguards known as Lictors. Like the liberty cap, the Fasces represent another emblem appropriated from antiquity in later times of revolutionary political change, and in times of stability; the official seal of the United States Senate has both the liberty cap and the fasces in its design representing freedom and authority.
The teapot is made of hard-paste porcelain, which entered production at Sèvres in the 1770s, although the soft-paste porcelain so characteristic of early Sèvres continued in use until the early 1800s. Pierre-Jean-Baptiste Vendé was the painter and gilder of this piece, identified by the mark V..D.; other marks include the Sèvres insignia and FR entwined for the Republique Française ; see Liana Paredes, Sèvres Then and Now: Tradition and Innovation in Porcelain 1750-2000, Washington D.C. and London: Hillwood Museum and Gardens Foundation in association with D. Giles Ltd., 2009, p.145.
The lid is a twentieth century replacement for the missing original.
Derek E. Ostergard (ed.), Tamara Préaud et al., The Sévres Porcelain Manufactory: Alexandre Brongniart and the Triumph of Art and Industry, 1800-1847, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1997.
Susan Dunn, Sister Revolutions: French Lightning, American Light, New York, Faber & Faber Inc., 1999.
Yvonne Korshak, ‘The Liberty Cap as a Revolutionary Symbol in America and France’ in Smithsonian Studies in American Art, Vol 1 No. 2 (Autumn 1987) pp. 52-69.
The Liberty Cap in the Art of the U.S. Capitol, https://www.aoc.gov/blog/liberty-cap-art-us-capito
The teapot is made of hard-paste porcelain, which entered production at Sèvres in the 1770s, although the soft-paste porcelain so characteristic of early Sèvres continued in use until the early 1800s. The lid is a much later replacement for the missing original.
Derek E. Ostergard (ed.), Tamara Préaud et al., The Sévres Porcelain Manufactory: Alexandre Brongniart and the Triumph of Art and Industry, 1800-1847, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1997.
Susan Dunn, Sister Revolutions: French Lightning, American Light, New York, Faber & Faber Inc., 1999.
Yvonne Korshak, ‘The Liberty Cap as a Revolutionary Symbol in America and France’ in Smithsonian Studies in American Art, Vol 1 No. 2 (Autumn 1987) pp. 52-69.
The Liberty Cap in the Art of the U.S. Capitol, https://www.aoc.gov/blog/liberty-cap-art-us-capito
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1795
maker
Sevres
ID Number
CE.P-779ab
catalog number
P-779ab
accession number
225282
This pearlware teapot with a blue, hand-painted underglaze from about 1825-1840 was designed with a concave sloping neck, a spout, and a loop handle.
Description
This pearlware teapot with a blue, hand-painted underglaze from about 1825-1840 was designed with a concave sloping neck, a spout, and a loop handle. The surface is decorated with a series of circular arcs around the shoulder and spear-shaped leaves have been placed at each joint. Spear-shaped leaves also decorate the handle and spout. A quartrefoil-shaped flower flanked by three leaves adorns both sides of the body. The cover has a similar design and a globular knob. After the American Revolution, drinking tea became a politicized activity, as some saw it as unpatriotic. Nevertheless, a home tea service remained a symbol of gentility and class, with upper classes using pure silver sets, and the middle and lower classes using silver luster or ceramic sets to have their afternoon tea and entertain guests.
date made
1825-1840
ID Number
1980.0614.105ab
catalog number
1980.0614.105ab
accession number
1980.0614
TITLE: Meissen teapot and cover (Hausmaler)MAKER: Meissen ManufactoryPHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain, hard paste (overall material)MEASUREMENTS: 4¼" 10.8 cm.OBJECT NAME: TeapotPLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, GermanyDATE MADE: 1713-1720, painted 1720-1730SUBJECT: The Hans Sy
Description
TITLE: Meissen teapot and cover (Hausmaler)
MAKER: Meissen Manufactory
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain, hard paste (overall material)
MEASUREMENTS: 4¼" 10.8 cm.
OBJECT NAME: Teapot
PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany
DATE MADE: 1713-1720, painted 1720-1730
SUBJECT: The Hans Syz Collection
Art
Domestic Furnishing
Industry and Manufacturing
CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection
ID NUMBER: 1987.0896.42
COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 859 a,b
ACCESSION NUMBER:
(DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center)
MARKS: None
PURCHASED FROM: Hans E. Backer, London, England, 1950.
This teapot is part of the Smithsonian’s Hans Syz Collection of Meissen Porcelain. Dr. Syz (1894-1991) began his collection in the early years of World War II, when he purchased eighteenth-century Meissen table wares from the Art Exchange run by the New York dealer Adolf Beckhardt (1889-1962). Dr. Syz, a Swiss immigrant to the United States, collected Meissen porcelain while engaged in a professional career in psychiatry and the research of human behavior. He believed that cultural artifacts have an important role to play in enhancing our awareness and understanding of human creativity and its communication among peoples. His collection grew to represent this conviction.
The invention of Meissen porcelain, declared over three hundred years ago early in 1709, was a collective achievement that represents an early modern precursor to industrial chemistry and materials science. The porcelains we see in our museum collections, made in the small town of Meissen in Germany, were the result of an intense period of empirical research. Generally associated with artistic achievement of a high order, Meissen porcelain was also a technological achievement in the development of inorganic, non-metallic materials.
The teapot was made in the Meissen manufactory but painted outside by an independent artist. Hausmalerei is a German word that means in literal translation ‘home painting’, and it refers to the practice of painting enamels and gold onto the surface of blank ceramics and glass in workshops outside the manufactory of origin. Beginning in the seventeenth century the work of the Hausmaler varied in quality from the outstanding workshops of Nuremberg, Augsburg, and Breslau (now Wroclaw in Poland), to the less skilled efforts of amateur artists. Early Meissen porcelain was sought after for this purpose, and wealthy patrons of local enameling and gilding workshops purchased undecorated porcelain, often of out-moded or inferior quality, which was then enameled with subjects of their choice. Hausmalerei was at first acceptable to the early porcelain manufactories of Meissen and Vienna, and Meissen sent blank porcelain to Augsburg workshops for decoration, but as the market became more competitive they tried to eradicate the practice. It was a temptation for Meissen porcelain painters to take on extra work as Hausmaler to augment their low pay, and the manufactory cautioned or imprisoned them if Hausmalerei activity was suspected or discovered.
The teapot was made at Meissen in Böttger porcelain ca. 1715 to 1720, but decorated about 1720 to 1730, probably by the Bohemian Hausmaler Ignaz Preissler (1676-1741). Preissler typically used the technique of painting black transparent enamel (Schwarzlot) onto the surface of the porcelain and then scratched the image through the color. The technique originated in stained glass making, and Preissler followed the tradition established in the German city of Nuremberg, an important center for the use of this technique on glass. Ignaz Preissler and his father Daniel worked on glass and on Chinese porcelain as well as blanks from the Meissen and Vienna porcelain manufactories.
The battle scenes probably depict engagements in the War of Spanish Succession (1701-1714), a conflict between European powers that arose following the death of the childless Charles II of Spain, the last of the Spanish Habsburgs. Publishers produced fine print collections to commemorate events of military and political importance, and collectors bought editions for their libraries. The likely source for the battle scenes were prints after the work of the battle scene painter, Georg Rugendas (1666-1742), perhaps prints executed by his son Georg Philipp.
The Hans Syz collection holds a Böttger porcelain teapot of similar shape to this one, but decorated in the manufactory with a rose in relief on both sides (ID number 1981.0702.14).
On the Hausmaler Ignaz Preissler see Maureen Cassidy-Geiger, 1989, Representatio Belli, ob Successionem in Regno Hispanico…: A Tea Service Garniture by the Schwarzlot Decorator Ignaz Preissler, The Metropolitan Museum Journal, Vol . 24 pp. 239-254.
On war as a subject of printmaking see James Clifton, Leslie M. Scatone, Ermine Fetvaci, 2009, The Plains of Mars: European War Prints 1500-1825.
Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert, 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 526-527.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1715-1720
1715-1720
maker
Meissen Manufactory
ID Number
1987.0896.42ab
catalog number
1987.0896.42ab
accession number
1987.0896
collector/donor number
859
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
c.1840s
ID Number
CE.P-541Aab
catalog number
P-541Aab
accession number
225282
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Enoch Wood and Sons
ID Number
CE.62.874Aab
catalog number
62.874Aab
accession number
171126
Mallet-shaped teapot with incurved neck and rounded shoulder on a circular, flared pedestal base. Bell-domed, hinged lid with wide, flat, overhanging edge is topped by button knop. Spurred, S-curve, D- or ear-shaped handle in pinned into spiral-scroll sockets.
Description
Mallet-shaped teapot with incurved neck and rounded shoulder on a circular, flared pedestal base. Bell-domed, hinged lid with wide, flat, overhanging edge is topped by button knop. Spurred, S-curve, D- or ear-shaped handle in pinned into spiral-scroll sockets. Faceted, S-curve spout has elongated D-shaped lip. Body perforated at spout. Inset flat bottom. No marks.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1840
ID Number
DL.65.0179
catalog number
65.0179
accession number
258258
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
CE.62.995D
catalog number
62.995D
accession number
171126
Compressed globular teapot with flared and scored circular collar and base. Inset, wide-rimmed, bell-domed, hinged lid is topped by small conical knop. Spurred, S-curve handle has cylindrical sockets; plain S-curve spout has flat top face and damaged lower lip.
Description
Compressed globular teapot with flared and scored circular collar and base. Inset, wide-rimmed, bell-domed, hinged lid is topped by small conical knop. Spurred, S-curve handle has cylindrical sockets; plain S-curve spout has flat top face and damaged lower lip. Body incised with two pairs of lines near middle and perforated at spout. Underside of slightly inset, flat bottom struck with touch mark of "BOARDMAN / & HART" above "N YORK", all in raised roman letters in rectangles, and "N\o. 4" in incuse roman letters.
Maker is Boardman & Hart, New York, NY, working 1828-1853. The Boardmans were a well-known family of pewtersmiths in Connecticut during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Lucius Hart (1803-1871) apprenticed with Thomas Danforth Boardman (1784-1873) and was his partner in the New York branch of the business. Boardman & Hart manufactured pewter but, over time, produced less of it in favor of Britannia and block tin, which could be silver plated. (For a similar teapot in silver plate, marked "N\o. 5", see DL*300859.30.)
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1828-1853
ID Number
1981.0081.01
catalog number
1981.0081.01
accession number
1981.0081
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1875
maker
Sevres
ID Number
CE.P-679ab
catalog number
P-679ab
accession number
225282
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1884
maker
Worcester Royal Porcelain Company
ID Number
CE.P-1103Aab
catalog number
P-1103Aab
accession number
225282

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