Teapot with Lid and Cup Inscribed with the Crest of John Deane (d. 1751), Governor of Bengal

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Teapot with Lid and Cup Inscribed with the Crest of John Deane (d. 1751), Governor of Bengal

India, Mughal empire, circa 1725-1732 (spout: 19th century)
Furnishings; Serviceware
Cobalt blue glass with gilding; brass spout
Teapot with Lid: 6 × 7 3/8 × 4 3/4 in. (15.24 × 18.73 × 12.07 cm) Cup: 2 × 2 in. (5.08 × 5.08 cm)
Gift of Doris and Ed Wiener (M.84.124.2a-c)
Not currently on public view

Curator Notes

...
This set of a teapot and cup are made of cobalt blue glass with gilded flowering pot motifs on the body and lid of the teapot and side of the handleless cup. An interlocking triangular motif enriches the teapot’s shoulder and forms a border along the lower body. It is paralleled on the cup’s mouth and lower border. Stylized pendant acanthus leaves form an additional design band around the shoulder of the teapot between the row of triangular motifs and the floral decoration on the body. The teapot's neck is decorated with a flowering vine pattern. The flowering pots on the opposite sides of the teapot and cup each bear an outline emblem of a crest of arms identifiable as an "out of a mural coronet argent a bear's head couped erminois muzzled gules," which describes a silver (or white) coronet (crown), from which emerges a gold bear's head covered in black ermine spots, with a red muzzle. Per the records of the College of Arms, London, this crest was granted on February 23, 1725/6, to John Deane of Bengal, East India, and his brother Thomas Deane of Gray’s Inn co, Middlesex, England. John Deane, an English East India Company merchant, was twice the governor of Bengal (1723–26 and 1728–32). He is recorded as having been given permission in 1726 to import significant quantities of glassware into Bengal. Tea and the Chinese manner of drinking it with porcelain spouted teapots and handless cups were introduced into England and its colonial spheres of influence in the 17th century.
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Bibliography

  • Markel, Stephen. Mughal and Early Modern Metalware from South Asia at LACMA: An Online Scholarly Catalogue. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2020. https://archive.org/details/mughal-metalware (accessed September 7, 2021).
  • Markel, Stephen. Mughal and Early Modern Metalware from South Asia at LACMA: An Online Scholarly Catalogue. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2020. https://archive.org/details/mughal-metalware (accessed September 7, 2021).
  • Desjardins, Tara. "Patna, Lucknow, and the Curious Crest of John Deane: An Investigation of Two Indian Glass Centers and a Colonial Drinking Set." Journal of Glass Studies 63 (2021): 247-67.
  • Markel, Stephen.  "Indian and 'Indianate' Glass Vessels in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art."  Journal of Glass Studies 33 (1991):  82-92.
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