quintessentially British. There is a hazy line where the Brown Betty has shifted from being an icon of pioneering innovation to a symbol of heritage and nostalgia. This is something of a burden because there’s a balance to strike between the familiar aesthetics of the teapot, the history of its evolution and the fact that its underlying success was essentially due to its cheapness and functionality. As the Brown Betty’s history is vague, there is nothing to say what defines a fake. Our nostalgia for the design is what allows it to remain relevant: it is this that demands the Brown Betty should be made in Staffordshire and which dictates why an imported model is not authentic. There are highly regarded design shops selling teapots made of white clay and shipped from east Asia as “the original Brown Betty”. But to my mind, because of the history of red clay, they cannot be the real article. My project involves creating a new evolution of the Brown Betty that acknowledges this history. I’m designing around Cauldon Ceramics’ skill set while trying to understand the constraints of the cultural idea of what the Brown Betty is. The last thing I want to do is create a design-led object that alienates traditional consumers. It is about taking the DNA from past iterations and translating that into a product that works today. The project hinges on the idea that this pot is affordable, accessible and a great design, but I also want to elevate the perceived value of the object as well as that of the red clay. It’s about articulating what makes it special. Now that the UK has voted to leave the EU, the project feels a little inward-looking, but that’s why it’s important to tell the wider story of the Brown Betty: what makes it British is not actually British. The pot evolved from the work of two Dutch brothers who moved from Germany to Staffordshire to refine a British clay that they were trying to use to emulate teapots produced in China. E N D
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10 9 Ian McIntyre opening a new mould for a two-cup Brown Betty.
10 The same teapot before being fettled and fired. (Photographs courtesy of Ian McIntyre)
Based on an interview by Anya Lawrence.
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