Images(10)

Teapot

Dateca.1754-1780

Attributed to Johann Philip Alberti (d. 1780)

OriginAmerica, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

MediumPewter, wood, and brass

DimensionsHeight: 7 1/8"; Width across spout and handle; 8 3/8"; Maximum diameter: 4 3/4"

Credit LineGift of Scott and Debra Duncan

Object number2022-186

DescriptionPewter teapot with a pear-shaped body, a curved spout, and a hinged, high domed lid set with a wood-disc finial. Both the body and lid have a midband. Its scrolled wooden handle has a spur at the top and is pinned to the body via two round sockets. The body stands on three short legs with pad feet and moulded knees.
Label TextArriving from Hamburg, in what is now Germany in 1754, Alberti soon set up a pewter shop on Front Street in partnership with Christian Horan. When that partnership dissolved in 1764, Alberti removed to Third Street between Arch and Market Streets. He is not believed to have been one of the city's more prolific pewterers. The inventory of his shop taken after his death in 1780 lists only a small amount of tools and material, and marked pieces by Alberti were unknown until fairly recently.

Few footed pewter teapots were made in pre-Revolutionary America, and the molds from which this teapot was cast was used by a number of others, including the so-called "Love" pewterers. Unmarked examples from these molds, like this fine example, are now attributed to Alberti.
ProvenanceFrom the collection of Bernard B. Hillmann of Wyckoff, NJ. Sold at auction by Pook & Pook, Inc. (Doylestown, PA), January 15, 2006, Lot 185.