An un-glazed stoneware teapot of this very rare form (without a cover) is illustrated by Barbara Szelegejd, ibid., 2013, pp. 183-185, no. 26, where she mentions the present teapot together with only three other stoneware teapots of this form which are known to have survived.1 The present example is the only known example with ‘black lacquer’ decoration in imitation of Japanese lacquer.
The August 1711 inventory of items at the Meissen manufactory records twenty-five plaster moulds relating to various vessels for serving tea, of which only one, no. 19, could relate to this form of teapot. The mould is described as a ‘round teapot with an upper handle’ (Ein rundt Thee Krügel mit einen ober-henckel),2and there are 40 fired pieces recorded, and 11 unfired pieces im Brenn-haus (in the firing chamber), but no mention is made of the decoration of the teapots. In the 1719 inventory, under Teekannen, 6 teapots mit (Ober)Henkel/überhenklig are listed, of which three were porcelain and three were stoneware. One of the three stoneware teapots in the 1719 inventory is recorded as being schwarzglasiert (black-glazed).3
Böttger's early factory quickly adapted the use of black lacquer and other decorative elements found on Asian imports into its highly innovative repertoire for the decoration of red stoneware. Red stoneware and black-glazed red stoneware were first offered for sale at the Easter Fair (Ostermesse) at Leipzig in 1710, the same year that the factory opened. Also in January the same year, Martin Schnell was employed by Augustus 'the Strong', Elector of Saxony, as his Hofflacquirer (Court lacquerer), and a collaboration with the Meissen factory was formed. Schnell is recorded as having been paid a high salary by the factory for lacquering and decorating red stoneware. In a list of factory workers drawn up in Autumn 1710 (probably by Böttger himself), a Laccirer Schnell is recorded with a weekly salary of 5 thalers.4By August 1711 he was hugely busy, being paid 30 thalers every two weeks.5 It is clear from his extremely high wages that his work was very highly regarded by Augustus, even if the wages included the cost of the gold which he needed for his work.6
However, specific information about Schnell's work appears to be scant. Monika Kopplin takes on the problem of attribution for Schnell's work by detailed comparison between simulated lacquerwork on Böttger pieces with lacquer furniture and other wood objects applied with lacquer decoration known to have been supplied by Schnell.7 Schnell’s workshop didn’t decorate Meissen stoneware pieces for very long; from 1716 onwards his name no longer appears in the Meissen records. The factory's development and shift to white porcelain production from 1713 onwards is thought to be a factor in this, and by 1717, Schnell and his workshop were fully preoccupied with the fittings and interior decoration of various buildings for the king.
No provenance before the 1991 Christie’s sale is known. There are two collection labels of undetermined date (19th century?) attached to the underside of the teapot; the central label is inscribed 45 in sepia ink, and this is enclosed concentrically by a circular label inscribed Dresden. “Böttcher”. 1706 in sepia ink.
1. A teapot and cover from the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Porzellansammlung, which is now in the Schloss Friedenstein Gotha / Schlossmuseum, is illustrated by Ingelore Menzhausen, ‘Das Älteste aus Meißen: Böttgersteinzeug und Böttgerporzellan’, in Johann Friedrich Böttger zum 300. Geburtstag, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden February – August 1982 exhibition catalogue, Dresden, 1982, col. pl. 1/8, where it is described as a ‘Treck-Potgen’ with an ‘Oberhenkel’ (former inventory number P.E. 2444). Another (apparently unpublished) teapot of this form was put on display in April 2000 as part of the permanent exhibition of antique pieces in the Staatliche Porzellan-Manufaktur Meissen GmbH. A third (un-glazed) example richly decorated with cut decoration is in the Wark Collection, Florida, and is illustrated by Ulrich Pietsch, Early Meissen Porcelain, The Wark Collection, London, 2011, p. 68, cat. No. 9.
2. Szelegejd, ibid., p. 185, citing Claus Bolz, ‘Formen des Böttgersteinzeugs im Jahre 1711‘, in Keramik Freunde der Schweiz, 1982, No. 96, p. 20.
3. Claus Bolz, ‘Steinzeug und Porzellan der Böttgerperiode – Die Inventare und die Ostermesse des Jahres 1719 –’ in Keramos, April 2000, No. 167/168, p. 122, table 13.7.
4. Barbara Szelegejd, Red and Black Stoneware and their Imitations in the Wilanów Collection, Warsaw, 2013, p. 211.
5. Barbara Szelegejd, ibid., 2003, p. 211.
6. Noted by Monika Kopplin in her essay 'All Sorts of Lacquered Chinese on a Black Glaze - Lacquer Painting on Böttger Stoneware and the Problem of Attribution to Martin Schnell' in ‘Schwartz Porcelain’, Museum für Lackkunst December and Schloß Favorite bei Rastatt 2003-2004 Exhibition Catalogue, Munich, 2003 (English Edition, Munich, 2004, p. 84). The 1712 factory payroll records that Schnell's monthly salary was 100 Reichstaler.
7. Kopplin, ibid., Munich, 2003, pp. 171-193 (English Edition, 2004, pp. 83-91).