Legend has it that tea was discovered by accident when in BC2737 the Chinese emperor Shen Nung saw leaves drop into the water that his servant was boiling for him to drink. At first pans were used to boil the leaves and water together, but soon wine ewers were adapted to allow the tea leaves steeping time. It was during the Ming dynasty in the 1500s that the first purpose-built teapots were made. They were made from the red-brown clay of Yixing province, which was known to be particularly heat resistant and, at first, the tea was drunk straight from the teapot\u2019s spout.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The Yixing teapots first made their way to Europe tucked alongside stocks of tea imported by the Portuguese and Dutch. Though it was a known commodity in Britain (Samuel Pepys took his first sip of this \u2018China drink\u2019 in 1660) Catherine of Braganza, the Portuguese princess who married Charles II, is credited with making drinking it a fashionable pastime. She would most likely have poured tea from a Chinese stoneware teapot or a taller English silver one, much like the pots used to make coffee. Some surviving examples are inscribed with their purpose \u2013 the only way to tell them apart.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n After Pepys had his first cup in the 1660, little is known about serving tea until the Elers brothers arrived in Staffordshire from Holland in the 1690s and started producing replicas of the original red stoneware teapots from Yixing. Tea at the time was highly taxed and taken only in the finest households. Families such as the one pictured, painted by Richard Collins in 1727, showed their status by being depicted taking tea. The most up-to-date equipment was de rigueur. In fact, in Jane Austen\u2019s Northanger Abbey,<\/i> General Tilney complains that he has only \u2018quite an old [tea] set, purchased two years ago\u2019.<\/p>\n The earliest British teapots were prone to cracking or exploding due to the heat of the water. \u2018Which is why,\u2019 says teapot expert Henry Sandon, \u2018ladies using their best Chelsea ware would warm the pot first\u2019. Thankfully, around 1750, Dr John Wall and an apothecary called William Davis devised a recipe using soap rock to make sturdier china. The Royal Worcester Pottery, formed in 1751, was the result. Their teapots, such as this 1756 example, quickly became bestsellers.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> To the delight of the British masses, the duty on tea was cut in the 1780s, even though moralists, concerned about being aped by their inferiors, claimed that the lower classes would miss out on the nutritious qualities of alcoholic drinks. As the Industrial Revolution rolled in, so did the mass production of teapots. The most famous was James Sadler\u2019s \u2018Rockingham Brown\u2019 or \u2018Brown Betty\u2019 as it became fondly known (after its colour and the most common name for servants at the time). Sadler\u2019s pots were thought to produce a superior brew, thanks to their shape, and by the late 1880s they were a fixture in most British households.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The 20th century has seen the teapot become a design icon. From novelty teapots (you can own a Margaret Thatcher pot that pours tea out of her nose if you so wish) to much sought-after stoneware examples by potter Geoffrey Whiting, few ceramic objects can be found in such a range of shapes and sizes. Few people, however, have been as fascinated by the teapot\u2019s form as Peter Shire. The American artist has said that a teapot being a sculpture and a sculpture being a teapot appeals to his sense of absurdity. He has been creating bold ceramic teapots since the early \u201970s. He also says that he likes that the teapot is \u2018a social modifier. It symbolises and actualises pouring out to a group of friends.\u2019 It was Shire\u2019s teapots that brought him to the attention of Ettore Sottsass, founder of the Memphis Group, a Milan-based design collective committed to bringing pop art\u2019s loud tones to furniture and objects. He called Shire\u2019s teapots \u2018fresh, witty, and full of information for the future\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Readers of Memoirs of a Geisha<\/i> will recall that the geisha Sayuri spends most of her formal encounters with clients pouring tea in ceremonies like the one below, captured around 1890 by Eliza Scidmore, the first female trustee of National Geographic. The Japanese rarely use a teapot in their ceremony as typically matcha <\/i>tea is used, a powdered tea that\u2019s spooned into bowls before hot water is added. The geishas seen here are pouring sencha<\/i> green tea \u2013 the leaf version \u2013 which makes use of the Japanese tetsubin. <\/i>This is a cast-iron pot thought to have developed during the 17th century as sencha, <\/i>which requires a pot to allow the leaves to steep, became more popular. Sencha<\/i> is considered a less-formal tea, more the type that is taken with family and friends.<\/p>\n Originally brought to Europe by Christopher Columbus, the pineapple had become so chic and expensive by the 18th century that well-to-do partygoers were known to rent one for a night as a symbol of their wealth. <\/i>The Staffordshire Potteries, by then competing with China to be the world\u2019s centre for teapot production, were quick to catch on and thanks to Josiah Wedgwood\u2019s perfecting of creamware (a refinement of salt-glaze earthenware that allowed for a thinner body and a more glossy finish) all sorts of bright and exotic teapots ranging from pineapples to camels began to appear. This first era of novelty teapots was also encouraged by the rediscovery of the Elers brothers\u2019 slip-casting technique, which had been lost after they went bankrupt in 1700. Freed from the restrictions of making spherical pots on a potter\u2019s wheel, casting allowed much more creative shapes to appear on fashionable British tea tables. The pineapple pot shown here was made in Staffordshire around 1755.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n After her encounter with the Cheshire Cat, Alice comes upon the house of the March Hare, who is sitting outside having a tea-party with the Mad Hatter and the Dormouse. When she leaves, declaring it \u2018the stupidest tea party I ever was at in all my life\u2019, Alice turns back to see the Hatter and the Hare stuffing the Dormouse into the teapot. In Alice\u2019s Adventures in Wonderland, <\/i>\u00a0Lewis Carroll created one of literature\u2019s most iconic mentions of tea. Carroll was intrigued by the Victorian\u2019s fixation on teatime etiquette and wrote a satire of a popular book of eating manners in 1855.<\/p>\n![\""Yixing\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/19\/2022\/01\/Yixing-Christies-2835_164-fbccc59.jpg?quality=90&resize=1023%2C867"\" "\\"\"Yixing\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>T<\/span>he Portuguese Princess<\/span><\/h2>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Sipping Status<\/h2>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Warming the Pot<\/h2>\n
![\""An\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/19\/2022\/01\/Worcester-Christies-5323_66.jpgjsessionidnull-932f887-e1643041721285.jpeg?quality=90&resize=1024%2C905"\" "\\"\"An\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>You might also like:<\/h4>\n
Brown Betty<\/h2>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Careless Tea Costs Lives<\/span><\/h2>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>T<\/span>he Art of Teapots<\/span><\/h2>\n
![\""A\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/19\/2022\/01\/Shire-BONHAMS-7399.jpgjsessionidnull-28719fd.jpeg?quality=90&resize=1024%2C1001"\" "\\"\"A\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>A Ceremonial Cup<\/h2>\n
![\""Photograph\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/19\/2022\/01\/NationalGeographic_708179-KL.jpgjsessionidnull-c10351a.jpeg?quality=90&resize=1024%2C721"\" "\\"\"Photograph\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>P<\/span>ineapple Mania<\/span><\/h2>\n
![\""Staffordshire\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/19\/2022\/01\/Fitzwilliam-9-Teapot-Staffordshire-c1755-65-KL.jpgjsessionidnull-dbe1c48.jpeg?quality=90&resize=1024%2C768"\" "\\"\"Staffordshire\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Curioser and Curioser<\/span><\/h2>\n