Sgraffito teapot

Majolica Works

Summary

Teapot with tall bell-shaped body, cylindrical handle and spout, white glaze with striped sgraffito decoration in cobalt blue. Round section handle loops vertically above rim to flattened terminals on shoulder, irregular narrow sgraffito bands. Narrow upright rim with cobalt blue band, wide sgraffito band to below rim. Handleless lid with narrow wavy spiral pattern radiating out from centre, interior glazed white with painted cobalt maker's mark. Cylindrical spout with cut lip, narrow irregular bands. Upper shoulder slopes downwards to widest point at mid-body, tapering in towards broad circular base with everted footring. Sgraffito chevron pattern to upper shoulder, wide band to shoulder, narrow irregular straight and wavy vertical lines to body, wide band to lower body, blue band to footring. White glaze to interior, speckled cobalt blue to interior base.

Display Label

Majolica works Liam Curtin and Wendy JOnes named their company after a traditional type of pottery called Majolica, which originally came from southern Spain. The colours are painted using metallic oxides, which are then covered with a clear tin glaze creating a shiny, glowing and reflective surface. Majolica Work's early caeramics were multi-coloured, but recently only blue and white have been used. The bold, geometric patterns are either painted on, or scratched into the surface of the coloured oxide. Their technique is called sgraffito, and has been used on the teapot on display here.