Chelsea teapot and cover

Code: BT6380

'Strawberry Leaf' pattern 

Circa 1745-49

Soft-paste porcelain

Height: 5 in. (12.7 cm.)

Mark: incised triangle

The pattern of overlapping leaves molded in relief on tea and coffee wares of the Triangle period is now generally referred to as the strawberry leaf or the acanthus pattern. Its original name, if it had one, is unknown. Newspaper advertisements of the period refer only to "Tea and Coffee Pots, Cups and Saucers of various Forms" or to "Tea, Coffee, or Chocolate Services", without describing or listing patterns. Wares in the strawberry leaf pattern appear both in the white and with polychrome decoration. The more common of the polychrome designs has flowers and insects scattered over the surface. As far as we know, there are only two teapots and several beakers with Kakiemon decoration, the other teapot in the Shand Kydd Collection, Bedfordshire, the beakers in several collections, including Colonial Williamsburg and the collection of F. Severne Mackenna.