In the nineteenth century small, individual shops began to limit their production to flatware and simpler objects, relying increasingly on large, highly organized manufacturers for more complex forms.  The Bayou Bend teapot is a product of this trend. Its stamp implies James Conning’s manufacture, yet, while he trained in New York, there is no evidence that he produced any hollowware while he was in Mobile, where he sold this article. He  also retailed silver by Wood & Hughes, and similar cast and die-rolled elements on their work form a basis for the teapot’s attribution.

Technical notes: The foot is a die-rolled band. The stem is spun and the body raised. The vented finial is soldered on.

Related examples: The Bayou Bend teapot was originally part of a service now in the Museum of the City of Mobile. A related Wood & Hughes tea set, also retailed by Conning, is recorded in Smith 1977, p. 485.

Book excerpt: David B. Warren, Michael K. Brown, Elizabeth Ann Coleman, and Emily Ballew Neff.  American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection. Houston: Princeton Univ. Press, 1998.