Fergus Gambon
Director
Lot 58
A very rare Elers Brothers redware teapot and cover, circa 1695
23 June 2021, 10:30 BST
London, KnightsbridgeSold for £4,845 inc. premium
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A very rare Elers Brothers redware teapot and cover, circa 1695
After a Yixing original, the cylindrical form slip-cast and lathe-turned, with an overhead handle and short spout, the body decorated in relief with floral sprigs to both sides, the domed cover with three flowerheads and surmounted with an acorn finial, 15cm high (2)
Footnotes
John Philip and David Elers were Dutch silversmiths who produced high quality red stoneware at Bradwell Wood in Staffordshire for a brief period between circa 1690 and 1698, their establishment being last recorded in 1697. Their distinctive wares were cast in plaster moulds and the exteriors neatly turned using a lathe, as detailed in a document of 1794 written by Josiah Wedgwood, see Gordon Elliott, John and David Elers (1998), p.18.
In the turning of a vessel on a lathe, a cone of either wood or clay is needed to hold the piece while it is spun, and the irregular circular impression to the centre of the base inside this teapot is consistent with this. The crispness of the moulded decoration on this teapot is attributable to the Elers' use of metal dies, as indicated by the slight roughness surrounding these reliefs. An Elers coffee pot with strikingly similar decoration and a comparable acorn finial to the cover was sold by Bonhams on 1 May 2013, lot 2. A lidded jug with similar floral sprigged decoration and an acorn finial is illustrated by Elliott (1998), p.20, fig.4. Another Elers jug with comparable decoration is illustrated by Jan Daniël van Dam, European Redwares, British Ceramic Design 1600-2002 (2003), p.36, pl.8.
