This teapot was made in the Staffordshire pottery of William Greatbatch (1735-1813), a prolific designer and maker of plaster block-moulds for ceramic vessels. Greatbatch ran his own pottery in Fenton, one of the six towns that made up the Staffordshire potteries. Such was his reputation that he was also regularly employed by his contemporary Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795) to supply block-moulds to the Wedgwood manufactory. Recent excavations of Staffordshire pottery sites have revealed the distinctive style of Greatbatch’s moulds, ornament and engraved transfer-prints. This teapot is made from a refined earthenware with a lead glaze, known as creamware. The colour applied to the low-relief fruit decoration is created through the use of oxides, which would have been sponged or painted onto the teapot to stain the creamware, before being fired with a clear glaze.
