During the 18th century, Staffordshire became the centre of ceramic production in England. Before the Victorian age of patented designs, hollow plaster moulds, experimental glazes and decorative styles were shared and copied among the various potteries of Staffordshire, in order to cater to the high demand for fashionable but affordable utilitarian wares. This stoneware teapot is decorated with block-moulded pastoral views known as ‘Landskip’ in which sheep and cows are seen grazing among trees before a country house, or boats and swans float on a pond. Other examples of this design are seen today in the Wedgwood Museum, but ceramic shards in this pattern have been found at several sites in Staffordshire, suggesting that Wedgwood was not the only factory producing landscape wares of this type.
