Teapot, made in Staffordshire, c.1765 (unglazed stoneware)

The mid-eighteenth-century English taste for the arts of Asia is strongly apparent in this capacious punch pot made of unglazed red stoneware, which was produced in England after about 1684 in imitation of the Chinese ceramic. The naturalistic treatment of its handle and spout and the figures that ornament its body likewise reflect the English fashion for things Chinese. Like much of the red stoneware produced in England at the time, it also bears a pseudo-Chinese seal mark, which has not been identified as belonging to a particular factory. Red stoneware was particularly popular for objects associated with the drinking of tea, which the English had been importing from Asia since the seventeenth century. Although this particular pot was primarily intended for punch, which in the eighteenth century was served hot from pots as well as bowls, pots of such a size were also used for serving large quantities of tea.