posted 07-05-2015 01:33 PM            

The teapot:

The whole set, which includes a sugar bowl and creamer:

The teapot with its cousin, a coffee pot also made by (the workshop of?) I.W. Forbes, in NYC in the first couple of decades of the 19th century:

Closeup of the teapot's handle:

If anyone has an opinion about the precise date of this tea set or the coffee pot (which I've posted about before), please don't hold back!

posted 07-06-2015 11:34 AM            

Thank you for pointing me to the Elegant Plate book, which I actually have! (My silver library is not very big.)

I'm willing to believe Waters about the date. She thinks the combination of round and oblong bodies (oblong teapot, creamer, and sugar, and round waste bowl) suggests the latish date of the late 18-teens. My set has only oblong bodies, since there's no waste bowl, but it's perfectly possible the waste bowl is just missing. (If anyone ever sees it, please let me know!)

I'm still not so sure the finial animals are dogs, though. The dog spout and wooden teapot handle on the teapot in the book don't look like the animal on the finials, which has a long tail with a sort of puff at the end and a face that looks more feline than canine to me. Of course, it doesn't have a mane. But neither do the faces of the handles on the book's sugar bowl and creamer, which Waters calls lions. The finial looks way more like those "lions" than it does like that set's other "dogs," to me. And my set doesn't have any other dogs--my spout has scales, and my handles have finned tails.

Still, who really knows? It's not like these things are photographs of actual animals, and there weren't a lot of lions or sea serpents running around Federal NYC.

I wonder whether John Wolfe Forbes and his workshop offered its tea sets with a choice of handles, finials, feet, and handles. The family who ordered the set in the book may have been dog lovers, and the family who ordered mine might have been more whimsical. Or maybe they thought lions and sea serpents were Classical.

posted 07-06-2015 01:11 PM            

IWF is one of my favorite workers of the period. He did fine work.

posted 07-07-2015 04:33 AM            

The one thing that caught my eye about the animals is it appears that the feet are cloven hooves rather than paws. Is it just me? There seems to be a definite line down the center of the extended foot and the tucked back leg also looks cloven hoof-like to me. I'm guessing it's a made up fantasy creature!