Teapots:One Possible Historical Overview
According to Chou Kao-ch'I, author of Yang-Hsien ming hu hsi, an account of lshing (Yixing) teapots, early in the sixteenth century, the potters at Ishing, a few miles up to Yangtze from Shanghai, became famous for teapots known to Europeans by the Portuguese name Boccarro (large mouth). These were small, individual pots which came to Europe with teas and served as models for the first European teapots.
Other scholars have discounted this history and say that the Chinese, though they provide Europe with her first tea, did not historically use teapots. Instead they brewed tea directly in the cup, letting the leaves sink to the bottom before drinking. Such teacups are still used in many Chinese restaurants today; however the modern productions are clumsy and rough as compared with those turned out during the latter half of the Ming Dynasty.
Some believe the design source for teapots may have come from one of two influences reaching Europe in the mid-1600's. The first was the Islamic coffee pots, which were first seen in the popular coffee houses of Europe and England during this period. (Indeed, for some years there was no design difference between coffee pots and teapots.) The second design source might have been the Chinese wine vessels then being imported as a curiosity piece. Unsure what its purpose was, it may have been assumed it was used with the imported tea in which it was packed (literally, to prevent breakage during the long trip from China.) The Earl Cadogan, whose estates were located in Staffordshire, the future center of English porcelain production, was the first Englishman recorded to have owned such a Chinese "wine pourer". It was globular in shape, foreshadowing the future design of the majority of teapots produced in Europe.
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