The present example belongs to a small group of Böttger stoneware teapots decorated with both polishing and engraving. Of the handful of teapots recorded, the closest is an example in the historic Schloss Friedenstein collects ion, Gotha, inv. no. St 325, illustrated in Martin Eberle, Das Rote Gold, Die Sammlung Böttgersteinzeug auf Schloss Friedenstein Gotha, 2011, p. 60, no. 43, which features almost identical polished banding and carving.
Right: Schloss Friedenstein collects ion, Gotha, inv. no. St 325
Sotheby’s is grateful to Errol Manners for supplying this image.
Further teapots of the type include one in the Museum of Applied Arts, Budapest, acc. no. 5886.a-b, with scrollwork reserving a figure of Hercules;
A silver-mounted teapot in the National Museum in Warsaw, inv. no. SZC 197/a-b MNW, carved with medallions and trophies;
A teapot carved with scroll work ornament formerly in the collects
ion of Adalbert von Lanna, Prague, sold, Rudolph Lepke's Kunst-Auctions-Haus, Berlin, March 21-28, 1911, lot 1083; and another similar teapot in a Private English collects
ion.
Right: National Museum in Warsaw, inv. no. SZC 197/a-b MNW.
The Meissen manufactory employed glass engravers from Bohemia to apply their skills of polishing, engraving, and incising to use on Böttger's newly invented stoneware vessels; and as early as 5th August 1710, twenty-nine glass-cutters are recorded in the list of workers at.mes
issen. However, with the continuing development of a porcelain body at.mes
issen, interest in brown stoneware began to diminish, and by 1712 only four glass workers remained employed at the factory.