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Lot Essay
The present teapot is likely from one of three tea-services of this form recorded at Union Porcelain Works and displayed at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition of 1876-- the present being one with "birds of various kinds, in brilliant plumage, appear among a mist of flowers on a background of rich matt blue." See A.C. Frelinghuysen, American Porcelain, 1770-1920, New York, 1989, pp. 188-189 for a similar tea-service in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum and pp. 190-191 for a cup and saucer with a similar blue ground and gilding pattern.
Pitcher plants, a native North American botanical specimen, were often to be found on items by U.P.W. and the founder of the factory, Thomas C. Smith is known to have grown them in his greenhouse. The Chinese figure atop the pot is emblematic of the tea that would have been held within; the corresponding sugar-bowl finial is the bust of a sugar-cane picker.
Pitcher plants, a native North American botanical specimen, were often to be found on items by U.P.W. and the founder of the factory, Thomas C. Smith is known to have grown them in his greenhouse. The Chinese figure atop the pot is emblematic of the tea that would have been held within; the corresponding sugar-bowl finial is the bust of a sugar-cane picker.