30 
House & Garden 
A favorite design for teapots 
among Staffordshire potters 
was the sitting camel with a 
dolphin handle 
COLLECTING SALT GLAZE WARE 
Here Is a Field Not Too Exp ensive in Which the Ceramic 
Hobbyist Can Wander With Profit 
GARDNER TEALL 
cent of Wedgwood 
fordshire manufactu 
Basket weave and panel 
designs in relief enrich this 
salt glaze plaque 
Tureens were not uncommon 
subjects for salt glaze potters 
An intricate basket 
design decorates this 
18 th Century Staf¬ 
fordshire piece 
S OME three years ago a remarkable col¬ 
lection of ceramic pieces brought together 
by Mr. Thomas B. Clarke was dispersed 
by sale, a collection which contained a far 
greater number of examples of English salt 
glaze than had, probably, ever before been 
brought together by an American collector. 
Since this event interest in the subject of salt 
glazes has grown apace in America. 
In his introduction to the catalog of the 
Clarke collection, Mr. Dana H. Carroll re¬ 
ferred to “the charm of 18th Century salt 
glazes ... as seen on the soft and rich sur¬ 
faces of the mahogany and oak furniture” and 
wrote, “It was just such furnishings of 18th 
Century England which the salt glaze dishes 
and ornaments originally decorated and served 
—the sideboards and cupboards, the tables and 
dressers—and they speak in the same tongue 
on this side of the sea. In fact, they bring 
Albion with them; note the teapot fashioned in 
the form in miniature of an Englishman’s 
home. In the open lattice and basketry of the 
dishes for table use and adornment admirers 
see the 18th Century Englishman’s attempt to 
produce plastic ornament in concord with the 
designs found in his imported laces and 
damasks. Again he weaves openwork baskets, 
as the worker in whites, intertwining the stems 
of the grapevines and training its leaves for 
decoration. Fruit baskets, sugar bowls and 
creamers, tea caddies and cruet stands and 
This irregular shape belongs to 
one of the Staffordshire styles 
sauce-boats, epergnes, chestnut bowls and hot 
water plates bespeak the hospitable board, and 
plaques, jardinieres and statuettes the more 
purely decorative aspirations of artificers who 
worked homogeneously rather than as imitators 
of the stranger.” 
Perhaps the salt glaze teapots in curious 
form particularly arrest the collector’s atten¬ 
tion. Mr. Carroll’s reference to the one fash¬ 
ioned after an Englishman’s home brings to 
mind the suggestion that such 
were designed and manufac¬ 
tured for the occasions of va¬ 
rious local housewarmings. 
Familiar to collectors, too, 
are those remarkable salt 
glaze teapots in the form of 
caparisoned camels in sitting 
positions—of which there are 
to be found some three dif¬ 
ferent poses—generally with 
dolphin handles reaching 
from the hind-quarters to the 
tank upon the saddle. Then there were the 
heart-shaped teapots from which lovers took 
their tea; teapots in the form of squirrels— 
curious in having a sheep’s head and squirrel’s 
body; cauliflower pots (although these are rare 
in salt glaze) and various other curious shaped 
pieces. 
Mr. Frank Freeth classifies the Staffordshire 
salt glaze teapots as (1) The pecten shell, in 
which the design of the side of the teapot rep¬ 
resents either one shell or 
three or four superimposed 
with elaborate shell, bird and 
acorn patterns often taking 
their place; (2) The house, 
homely in design but occa¬ 
sionally having the royal 
arms over the door; (3) Ani- 
Teapots representing an En¬ 
glishman’s home were often 
made for housewarmings 
