Thomas Whieldon
Teapot
1745-1750
Physical Qualities
Earthenware (agateware); lead glaze, metal, 5 7/8 × 7 1/4 in. (14.9 × 18.4 cm.)
Credit Line
Purchased as the gift of Kenneth S. Battye, Baltimore
Object Number
1982.126
Here, Erickson piled together three interconnected elements of global trade: blue-and-white Chinese porcelain for export, a shell-shaped English teapot for Chinese tea, and locally sourced clay to reference Native rights to American soil. Its title, Dragon Junk Teapot, is a play on the word junk, both a type of Chinese merchant ship and debris found on the ocean floor. To recreate the shape of an 18th-century English teapot, Erickson studied works similar to the Pecten Shell Teapot in the Baltimore Museum of Art’s collection.
