This teapot is categorised as creamware, a type of earthenware first developed in Staffordshire in the 1750s. Unlike porcelain, creamware was cheap to produce and incredibly durable due to the addition of calcined flint to the clay. The horizontal dots that decorate the pot were made using a roulette, a small hand tool used to create patterns on ceramic surfaces. Green-glazed creamware teapots of this period were often gifted amongst middle-class tea drinkers and were decorated with the owner’s name. This example bears a gilt inscription that reads ‘Marie Hue 1777’.
