A rare Wedgwood creamware teapot and cover, circa 1780-82
Printed in black by Sadler and Green of Liverpool with a portrait of Admiral Rodney, above a titled scrolling ribbon flanked by tritons, the reverse with a large scroll-edged panel depicting a ferocious naval battle, Sir Edward Hawke defeating the French fleet off Belle-Isle, 13.5cm high, impressed WEDGWOOD (2)
Footnotes:
Provenance
Norman Stretton Collection, Phillips, 21 February 2001, lot 188

Illustrated and discussed by David Drakard, Printed English Pottery (1992), p.155, fig.417. The source print for the portrait was published in April 1780, a few months after Rodney's victory over the Spanish fleet at the Battle of Cape St Vincent, the 'Moonlight Battle'. The naval scene on the reverse is from an unrelated battle, predating the teapot by at least twenty years and taken from the print by Richard Paton. Presumably, Wedgwood saw commercial sense in utilising an existing image rather than waiting for the latest battle to be drawn, engraved and printed.

The spout is restored, the upper portion having been made up. There are shallow but extensive losses to the inner flange of the teapot where the cover sits. This is not visible when the cover is in place, which sits comfortably. The rim of the cover is restored, with a tiny shallow chip to the finial and very shallow minor chips and a short fine crack to the rim of the cover and inner flange. There are three very fine starcracks to the teapot, two of which are only visible to the exterior and one only visible to the interior. None of these appear to affect the earthenware body of the teapot and only the glaze. There is crazing to the glaze overall, some of which has picked up a little stain. Some stain has been let in by roughness and minor loss to the glaze on the handle, as can be seen in the catalogue photo.