Art Deco ‘Brown Betty’ Style Teapot with Marbled Brown Glaze

This is an iconic British ‘Brown Betty’ style teapot, in classic Art Deco style.

The teapot is of globular form, with a short, galleried rim, a looped handle with a protruding thumb rest, and a curved spout. There is a moulded band of beading around the centre.

The teapot is glazed in a chocolate brown shade, over which is a thin layer of dark, lustred glazed that gives it an overall marbled effect.

There is a band of hand-painted, stylised leaf motifs in classic Art Deco style. The panel is pale blue, with the outlines in black, and the leaves filled with shades of dark and light green, red, and burgundy. There is applied gilding above and below this panel, around the rim, at the tip of the spout and down the sides, and down the handle.

It has a circular lid with a galleried base. There is a central round knop and a steam hole off-centre. This is also glazed in the same brown design as the body, with gilding on the knop and a circle around the top of the lid.

The teapot sits on a short, discoid base, which reveals the underlying ceramic body to be red or terracotta coloured. This is due to the fact that Brown Betty teapots were made with red ‘Etruria Marl’ clay. The base is impressed with the words ‘MADE IN ENGLAND’.

It has a maximum height (including the lid) of approximately 16.1cm, with a diameter across the rim of about 9.5cm and across the base of about 9.5cm. It has a maximum width from the spout tip to the edge of the handle of about 24.5cm.

It has an unwrapped weight of 1040g.

It is in good used condition, although there are a couple of chips and a faint crack on the inside of the lid (see pictures). These don’t affect the use of the teapot, but this wear is reflected in the price. There is also some crazing to the glaze and some glaze scratches, which are commensurate with use. There is also a matte patch within the clear glaze on the hand-painted panel, which is a ‘miss’ during manufacture.