Teapot

Wedgwood pottery was also a player in "fashion-forward" porcelain reaching a wide, middle-class market in the late 19th century. The craze for everything Japanese, started with the opening of Japan to Western trade after centuries in 1854. It led to widespread collection of Japanese prints, ceramics, and even Japan-themed comic operas like Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Mikado." This teapot combines branch-like spout, handle and finial with naturalistic blossoms and geometric designs on the feet. It captures the mania for Japan which could be compared in part with the mania for Chinese porcelain 150 years prior.