Teapot

ARTIST / MAKER: Fulvio Scavia (maker)
N.K. Sethia (designer)
DATE: 2012 (made)
PLACE: Italy (made)
MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES: Ostrich egg, mounted with silver and gold, with a wooden handle
COLLECTION NUMBER: 305

This ostrich egg teapot features silver mounts and the Sethia crest in gold. Its form was inspired by a white teapot owned by Elizabeth Murray, Countess of Dysart and later Countess and Duchess of Lauderdale (1626-1698). The Duchess’s teapot, a Chinese porcelain Zhangzhou white ware from ca.1650-1670, still sits on a tea table in her Private Closet in Ham House, Richmond-upon-Thames. As a tea taster by trade, Nirmal Sethia, the founder of Newby Teas, is passionate about creating the finest teas and reviving the art of tea making and drinking. Through collecting and preserving the finest historic teawares in the Chitra Collection, it is also his hope that respect for tea and its traditions can be rekindled. To support this mission, Nirmal Sethia has designed and commissioned a series of 21st century teapots, such as this example, in celebration of tea’s extraordinary history.