Images(2)

Teapot

Date1766-1770

OriginEngland, Staffordshire

MediumLead-glazed earthenware (creamware)

DimensionsOH: 4 3/4", A) H: 4 1/8"; D: 4 1/4"; W(handle to spout): 7 1/2"; B) H: 1 1/8"; D: 2 3/8"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1953-417,A&B

DescriptionTeapot of footed globular body with crabstock spout and handle, each side painted in brownish red with "No Stamp Act" within cartouche of leaf scrolls and flowers. Conforming cover with knob finial and painted with pattern conforming to cartouche.
Label TextThe Stamp Act was passed in March of 1765 and became effective on November 1 of that year. It taxed all colonial commercial and legal papers, which included newspapers, pamphlets, and playing cards. It was the British Parliaments' attempt to directly tax American colonists for the high cost of defending their newly expanded territory in North America. The colonists were outraged at being taxed without their consent, a right guaranteed to all Englishmen, and they refused to pay the tax. This was taken a step further when colonial merchants agreed to boycott the importation of all English goods. William Pitt, a Member of Parliament, championed the colonial cause in London and the Act was repealed in March of 1766, less than five months after it had gone into effect.

English manufacturers, concerned over the loss of the American market, were pleased with this outcome. The creamware teapots made to commemorate the repeal of the Stamp Act are decorated primarily with both "No Stamp Act" and "America Liberty Restored" thus supporting the conclusion that they were manufactured after the act was repealed, rather than made in protest of the Act itself. Colonial Williamsburg's teapot is inscribed "No Stamp Act" on both sides of the pot, but it so closely relates to the other known examples that it seems likely that it too was produced after March 1766.

Not only does it seem likely that these wares were made for the American market, but they were in fact here as evidenced by the inventory of James Brown, a tobacco factor and merchant in Piscataway, Maryland. His inventory lists two coffeepots, four teapots, three jugs, and three pint jugs all with an "Enamel'd No Stamp Act" motif. In 1771, the inventory of Brown's successor, Alexander Hamilton still included two jugs decorated with the Stamp Act motif. Today the only known surviving "No Stamp Act" ceramics are teapots.

By the early 1770s, creamware tea and dinner items were displacing both delft and white salt-glazed stoneware. Hundreds of potteries in England were making this newly fashionable ceramic in shades ranging from palest white to deep ivory. Strong yet light in weight, creamware could be manipulated into a variety of decorative techniques.
Inscribed"No / Stamp Act" inscribed on face of body - both sides
MarkingsNone
ProvenanceAvis & Rockwell Gardiner, Amerian Antiques

Exhibition(s)