Featured Brown Betty teapots!

Anyone else have a fascination with these?
I came across an interesting V&A video about the re-engineering of the Brown Betty:



Here are just a few from my own collection:

Two by Price


One from ALB (Alcock, Lindley, and Bloore) on a Sudlow teapot trivet


And a plain but large Gibson with a cozy hand-knitted by my grandmother in the 1970s


I’d love to see your examples of the humble Brown Betty!

 

A few years ago I did a tour of the Stoke area visiting several potteries. I came across an interesting Brown Betty exhibition. Here are a few photos:

 

TY Bluumz!

I just learned something new today..............never ever heard of a Brown Betty....although I've seen quite a few.

 

I've heard of them but don't collect teapots. The ones I find here are mostly made in Japan.

 

They are a workhorse teapot, those. I've a baby one. Athough, the teapot I use every day is an Old Hall stainless steel one, designed by Robert Welch. It was stolen from a college by my other half's flatmate in the 60s!

Not my image, but it's like this:

 

I had this Sadler Brown Betty punch pot. Held about 3 quarts:


Walked away from an ALB teapot last week just because I'm not selling anymore, but it looked nice, and I was tempted..

 

Very nice, thanks for sharing that. Love the shape and colors.

 

Just a bit more info on Brown Betty teapots...

A Brown Betty is typically globe-shaped, which is the shape thought to best allow loose tea leaves to steep properly.
They are redware, made from the red clay (Etruria Marl clay) of the Stoke-on-Trent area. This red clay was/is thought to hold heat better. You will know if your brown teapot is redware by checking the base of the pot or the bottom edge of the lid.

A redware Brown Betty:


NOT redware:


A red clay pit:


The thick brown earthenware glaze is known as Rockingham glaze, after a style associated with the earlier 18th-century production of ware by the Rockingham Pottery of Swinton, West Riding of Yorkshire, England. The glaze was imitated by many English and American potteries.

A late 19th-century American spaniel with a Rockingham glaze:


By 1926, the Staffordshire pottery industry was making approximately half a million Brown Betties per week.
Alcock, Lindley, and Bloore (ALB) is credited with cementing the typical features of the Brown Betty: the round shape, the roughly cut spout to break the flow of liquid and prevent dribbling, and the use of the Rockingham glaze to disguise any tea staining.

Another video:

 

Very interesting.
The only Brown Betty I was aware of was Apple Brown Betty. Live and Learn.

 

Here's an ALB with a different spout:


The ALB teapots I've had are also distinguished by an undercut top collar that holds the lid in place when pouring, and a vent hole that goes through the center of the lid finial.

This from Gibson Silvoe:


The Sadler has a white body, but for myself, it definitely says Brown Betty:

 

The Sadler is still a Brown Betty.

 

An ad from 1935:



I love your Gibson!!

True Brown Betties are traditionally redware.

 

Three more from my collection: a Sadler, a Sudlow (which matches the Sudlow trivet in my original post), and an ALB.

 

If I would have known about these when I was collecting, I surely would have bought one. I love the chocolate colors.
Thanks for sharing bluumz.

 

You're very welcome.
Brown Betties are a reasonably priced, easy to find, and useful (at least to tea drinkers) collectable.

 

Now I will keep an eye out for them. I don't drink tea or coffee but I would like to see one up close.

 

Over here, Brown Betty has come to mean shape and colour, regardless of body clay. (We don't really call it redware.)

 

Another ALB:


This one marked only Made in England:


And a studio pottery piece:

 

I'm more focused on the older/vintage/antique Brown Betties, which were typically made from the red clay.