Domestic Furnishings

Tiffany Floor Lamp

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.

Resource Type: Teapots

Chinese reticulated teapot and cover

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
18th century
late 17th, early 18th century
ID Number
CE.P-459ab
catalog number
P-459ab
accession number
225282

Teapot

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
maker
James & Ralph Clews
ID Number
CE.62.907Bab
catalog number
62.907Bab
accession number
171126

Sèvres teapot (part of a service)

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1838
ID Number
CE.P-124ab
catalog number
P-124ab
accession number
225282

Vienna porcelain teapot and cover (part of a service)

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1814
ID Number
CE.P-518Cab
catalog number
P-518Cab
accession number
225282

Teapot

Raised, pear-shaped teapot on short foot ring with high- or bell-domed, hinged lid topped by a compressed-ball knop and a C-curve handle pinned into cylindrical sockets opposite a seamed, faceted S-curve spout, octagonal in section, ending in a bird's head.
Description
Raised, pear-shaped teapot on short foot ring with high- or bell-domed, hinged lid topped by a compressed-ball knop and a C-curve handle pinned into cylindrical sockets opposite a seamed, faceted S-curve spout, octagonal in section, ending in a bird's head. Right-angled, three-knuckle hinge attaches to mid-molding on lid and outer end of the upper socket. Body perforated at spout. Underside of rounded bottom is engraved "M / HRB" in shaded roman letters and struck "BTE" in raised letters in a rectangle, both on same side of centerpoint; a circled "106" incised near edge.
Maker is Barent Ten Eyck (1714-1795) of Albany, NY. Barent's father, Konraet Ten Eyck (also Coenradt, Coenraet or Coenraedt; 1678-1753), and his older brother, Jacob C. Ten Eyck (1705-1793) were also silversmiths. Barent made silver for the Indian trade; few pieces of domestic wares by him are known.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1735
ID Number
DL.66.0457
catalog number
66.0457
accession number
1977.0770

Teapot

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
CE.62.1001Kab
catalog number
62.1001Kab
accession number
171126

Fürstenberg porcelain teapot and cover (part of a service)

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1825-1830
ID Number
CE.P-519Bab
catalog number
P-519Bab
accession number
225282

Sèvres porcelain teapot (part of a service)

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1840
ID Number
CE.P-808Aab
catalog number
P-808Aab
accession number
225282

Meissen red stoneware teapot and cover

MARKS: None.PURCHASED FROM: Paul Schnyder of Wartensee, Lucerne, Switzerland, and New York, 1950.This teapot and cover is from the Smithsonian’s Hans Syz Collection of Meissen Porcelain. Dr.
Description
MARKS: None.
PURCHASED FROM: Paul Schnyder of Wartensee, Lucerne, Switzerland, and New York, 1950.
This teapot and cover is from 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 collector and dealer Adolf Beckhardt (1889-1962), formerly of Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany. 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.
This teapot and cover was made in red stoneware, a very hard and dense type of ceramic similar in appearance to the Chinese Yixing ceramics which inspired their imitation at Meissen. Red stoneware, enriched with iron oxides, preceded porcelain in the Dresden laboratory where physicist, mathematician, and philosopher, Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus (1651-1708) and alchemist Johann Friedrich Böttger (1682-1719) experimented with raw materials fused by solar energy amplified through a burning glass. Success in red stoneware was an important step towards development of white porcelain.
The teapot represents a distinct class of objects in the red stoneware group in which the gilding and color was applied at the workshop of the Dresden court lacquerer, Martin Schnell. Augustus II, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland (1670-1733) admired and collected the lacquer vessels and furniture exported to the West from Japan. Martin Schnell 1675-1740), who trained in the workshop of Gerhard Dagly (1657-1715) in Berlin, was appointed director of the Dresden lacquer workshop in 1710. Schnell lacquered very fine examples of furniture, but it is unlikely that he did much work for Meissen even though he was associated with the manufactory for several years. This type of Meissen product first appeared at the Leipzig Easter fair in 1710.
The octagonal shape of this teapot follows the form of contemporary silver vessels and was probably designed by the Dresden court goldsmith Johann Jakob Irminger (1635-1724). The stoneware is red-brown in color and the glaze is a blackish-brown. It was decorated in the Dresden lacquer workshop with a seated Chinese figure on one side between panels of foliate designs, and on the other side the monkey figure seen in this photograph is also flanked by foliate designs, and this is an early representation of a monkey in Meissen’s production. Sources for the motifs on this group of objects came from prints and pattern books like Paul Decker’s (1677-1713) Muster für Lackierer (Patterns for Lacquerers), and the 1688 publication by John Stalker and George Parker A Treatise for Japanning and Varnishing.
For a comparable example see Ulrich Pietsch, 2011, Early Meissen Porcelain: The Wark Collection from the Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens.
See also Kopplin, M., van Aken-Fehmers, M.S., Cassidy-Geiger, M., 2004, Schwartz Porcelain: the lacquer craze and its impact on European porcelain, exhibition catalog of the Staatlicher Schlösser und Gärten Baden-Württemberg.
On the problem of attributing work to Martin Schnell see Kopplin, M., Lacquer Painting on Böttger Stoneware: Three Walzenkruge and the problem of attribution to Martin Schnell, http://www.kunstpedia.com/articles/lacquer-painting-on-b%C3%B6ttger-stoneware--three-walzenkr%C3%BCge-and-the-problem-of-attribution-to-martin-schnell.html
Ukers, W. H., 1935, All about Tea
Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert, 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 32-33.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1710-1715
maker
Meissen Manufactory
ID Number
CE.70.641ab
accession number
292238
collector/donor number
861
catalog number
70.641ab

Teapot

Small, silver-gilt or vermeil teapot with bulbous oval body on a short, flared, oval pedestal base; flat inset top has a central circular opening notched at front and back for the twist-lock cover topped by an ebony urn.
Description
Small, silver-gilt or vermeil teapot with bulbous oval body on a short, flared, oval pedestal base; flat inset top has a central circular opening notched at front and back for the twist-lock cover topped by an ebony urn. Applied decoration includes two cast circular floral wreaths on body, die-rolled bands of scroll-outlined waterleaves at neck and of pointed leaves and single buds at base, and beading at middle of pedestal and shallow S-curve spout with plain upper half and fluted lower half. High, tapered C-curve handle is pinned into two circular rosettes at top and an elongated conical socket at bottom. Brass tag stamped "3327" is wired to handle. Inside and collar of lid and exterior of foot are struck with a total of five hallmarks. Part of a five-piece service, DL*59.2346A-E.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1819 - 1838
maker
Cahier, Jean-Charles
ID Number
DL.59.2346B
catalog number
59.2346B
accession number
226997
collector/donor number
72

Teapot

Rectangular, seamed teapot with raised-panel, bulging sides and a flared, rectangular, hinged lid topped by cast acorn on four ball feet.
Description
Rectangular, seamed teapot with raised-panel, bulging sides and a flared, rectangular, hinged lid topped by cast acorn on four ball feet. Body is engraved "DFB" in conjoined foliate script and has die-rolled bands of eight-petaled flowers and snowflake motifs at top and bottom of its flared shoulder and a narrower band of leaves at its base. Spurred, right-angled, C-curve handle, rectangular in section, has ribbed fruitwood insulators. Bellied S-curve spout, also rectangular in section, has a curvilinear upper lip. Underside is struck twice "P.GARRETT" in raised serif letters in a rectangle and incised "$62.40" and "oz 26 dwt 7". No centerpoint. From a three-piece tea service, DL*303918.0001-.0002.
Maker is Phillip (or Philip) Garrett (1780-1851) of Philadelphia, PA; worked alone, 1801-1828, and in partnership with his son Thomas Cresson Garrett (1805-1888) from 1828 to 1835.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1815 - 1825
ID Number
DL.303918.0001
catalog number
303918.0001
accession number
303918

Teapot

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Mellor, Venables and Company
ID Number
CE.62.956Oab
catalog number
62.956Oab
accession number
171126

Royal Worcester reticulated teapot

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1886
maker
Worcester Royal Porcelain Company
ID Number
CE.P-1103Bab
catalog number
P-1103Bab
accession number
225282

Teapot

Floral repousse-decorated, squat baluster-shape teapot with flared, hinged lid topped by a cast mushroom-and-ball knop, an S-curve spout with split lip, and C-curve handle pinned into ivory insulators.
Description
Floral repousse-decorated, squat baluster-shape teapot with flared, hinged lid topped by a cast mushroom-and-ball knop, an S-curve spout with split lip, and C-curve handle pinned into ivory insulators. A ruffled or pleated band is around lid and spout attachment, and long anthemion leaves are along spout and handle back. Body perforated at spout. Underside of flat bottom is engraved "JBW" in conjoined, shaded foliate script and struck with a small tower above "JACOBI & JENKINS / MAKERS / BALTIMORE" and "STERLING 9[25/]1[000] FINE". No centerpunch.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1894 - 1908
ID Number
DL.68.0459
catalog number
68.0459
accession number
274913

teapot

Raised bulbous baluster-shaped teapot with overall chased and repousse grapevine decoration on four cast feet of looped branches of blooming flowers. Double-domed, hinged lid is topped by a cast cluster of grapes on looped stem. Band of angular twisted branches at rim.
Description
Raised bulbous baluster-shaped teapot with overall chased and repousse grapevine decoration on four cast feet of looped branches of blooming flowers. Double-domed, hinged lid is topped by a cast cluster of grapes on looped stem. Band of angular twisted branches at rim. High-loop C-curve handle and S-curve spout also cast as branches or woody trunks wrapped with budding and blooming floral vines; handle is pinned into ivory insulators. Body perforated at spout. Underside of rounded bottom struck above and below centerpoint with Gorham trademark of a lion passant facing left, an anchor, and the raised roman letter "G", all in clipped-corner surrounds, and "COIN" in incuse roman letters; "31/7" and three lines of geometric shapes are faintly scratched above and to right. Clean interior. From a six-piece coffee and tea service, 1988.0569.01-.06.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
c. 1855-1860
maker
Gorham Manufacturing Company
ID Number
1988.0569.02
accession number
1988.0569
catalog number
1988.0569.02
1988.0569.01-06

Teapot

Scalloped or ribbed pear-shaped teapot on four cast scroll feet with domed, hinged lid topped by button knop. Fluted S-scroll spout with split lip. Fluted cylindrical sockets for spurred C-shaped handle, which is broken off and stored inside teapot. Body perforated at spout.
Description
Scalloped or ribbed pear-shaped teapot on four cast scroll feet with domed, hinged lid topped by button knop. Fluted S-scroll spout with split lip. Fluted cylindrical sockets for spurred C-shaped handle, which is broken off and stored inside teapot. Body perforated at spout. Underside of body struck with maker's mark and four sets of numbers.
Maker is Shaw & Fisher of Sheffield, England; 1830-1894. The firm specialized in Britannia and, later, electroplated wares.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1835-1865
ID Number
DL.366312
catalog number
366312
accession number
124063

Teapot

Small, tinned copper-bottom, tapered cylindrical teapot with bell-domed, hinged lid topped by button knop. Cast bracket handle is square in section. S-curve spout with faceted face and round belly. Body perforated at spout.
Description
Small, tinned copper-bottom, tapered cylindrical teapot with bell-domed, hinged lid topped by button knop. Cast bracket handle is square in section. S-curve spout with faceted face and round belly. Body perforated at spout. Underside of flat bottom struck once "TD&SB" in raised roman letters inside a rectangle above an incuse "100".
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1810-1830
1875-1900
ID Number
DL.300859.0013
catalog number
300859.0013
accession number
300859

Worcester porcelain teapot and cover

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
c. 1770
1765-1770
ID Number
CE.P-163ab
catalog number
P-163ab
accession number
225282

Teapot

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
CE.62.1039ab
catalog number
62.1039ab
accession number
171126

Teapot

Plain, oblong, boat-shaped teapot on four ball feet with flat, rectangular hinged lid domed at center and topped by a rectangular rosette knop. Spurred, C-shape wood handle is pinned into cylindrical sockets.
Description
Plain, oblong, boat-shaped teapot on four ball feet with flat, rectangular hinged lid domed at center and topped by a rectangular rosette knop. Spurred, C-shape wood handle is pinned into cylindrical sockets. Bellied gooseneck or S-curve spout with elongated D-shaped lip and flat inside face. Body perforated at spout. Underside of slightly raised bottom struck incuse "I.VICKERS" between "B 4" and "586".
Maker is John Vickers of Sheffield, England; working, 1809-1836. His father, James Vickers (1737-1809), is said to have discovered and was the first to produce Britannia ware in 1769 or 1770, establishing Sheffield as major manufacturing center in the trade.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1809-1836
ID Number
DL.311701
catalog number
311701
accession number
64443

teapot

Inverted pear-shaped teapot decorated with intertwined fuschia sprays around its shoulder and a single cast blossom on its hinged, trumpet-shaped, circular lid; engraved "M\L/K" on one side above the circular, low-domed, ruffle-edged foot.
Description
Inverted pear-shaped teapot decorated with intertwined fuschia sprays around its shoulder and a single cast blossom on its hinged, trumpet-shaped, circular lid; engraved "M\L/K" on one side above the circular, low-domed, ruffle-edged foot. Floral-decorated S-curve spout and high-loop, C-curve handle pinned into ivory insulators; body perforated at spout. Underside of flat bottom struck incuse with a stylized "M" trademark, "815" above "2 1/2 P'T'S." in roman letters, and "STERLING" in sans serif letters. From a six-piece coffee and tea service, 1980.0027.01-.06.
Maker is Marcus & Co., of New York, NY; 1892-1962 (merged with Black, Starr & Frost; founded 1810-present).
Location
Currently not on view
date made
c. 1900
ID Number
1980.0027.05
accession number
1980.0027
catalog number
1980.0027.05
1980.0027.01-06

Teapot

Small, Aesthetic-style, raised and spot-hammered, apple-shaped teapot; oxblood finish with applied silver decoration on opposite sides of an owl in a two-branched tree with linear-veined leaves and two moths or butterflies flying near a flowering branch of cherry or fruit blossom
Description
Small, Aesthetic-style, raised and spot-hammered, apple-shaped teapot; oxblood finish with applied silver decoration on opposite sides of an owl in a two-branched tree with linear-veined leaves and two moths or butterflies flying near a flowering branch of cherry or fruit blossoms. Low-domed, flared cover with ribbed ebony knop. High-arched, cane-wrapped bail handle is looped around rings attached at shoulders. Tinned interior. Body perforated at spout. Underside of concave bottom is struck with four incuse marks, an anchor in shield, "GORHAM CO." in sans serif letters, and "Y51" above "O" in serif letters.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1882
maker
Gorham Manufacturing Company
ID Number
1981.0199.01
accession number
1981.0199
catalog number
1981.0199.01

Teapot

Squat, pear-shaped teapot with a domed, hinged lid topped by a button knop, an S-curve spout ending in a V-split lip, and a hollow, high D- or ear-shaped handle flattened at its lower end.
Description
Squat, pear-shaped teapot with a domed, hinged lid topped by a button knop, an S-curve spout ending in a V-split lip, and a hollow, high D- or ear-shaped handle flattened at its lower end. Applied molded rims on lid and body; possible applied motifs on back side of lid and top face of handle. Body is perforated at spout and has a raised foot ring on its flat bottom. Bottom underside is struck incuse at center with a circular beehive mark for "ADELPHI SILVER PLATE CO." bordered by "QUADRUPLE PLATE - / NEW-YORK", and "17" below.
Maker is Adelphi Silver Plate Co. of New York, NY (factory located in Brooklyn), c. 1890-c. 1915.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1890 - 1915
ID Number
1977.0918.67
accession number
1977.0918
catalog number
1977.0918.67

Paris porcelain coffee pot (part of a service)

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
CE.P-579Aab
catalog number
P-579Aab
accession number
225282

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