Broken teapot sells for £575,000
Broken teapot sells for £575,000 Many people would have been tempted to throw the broken teapot in the bin. One collector is glad he did not. The blue and white teapot he bought at auction for £15 has just sold for £575,000 after being identified as one of the first porcelain pieces made in America. It was bought by a London dealer acting on behalf of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The teapot was made by John Bartlam, a British potter who emigrated to America to set up its first porcelain factory. His work was said to be so good that even the great Josiah Wedgwood feared competition from his workshop. But Bartlam’s enterprise was cut short by the American Revolution and he returned to England. The male collector, who specialises in “problem pieces”, spotted it at an auction in the Midlands in 2016. He bought the teapot, which had a broken, glued handle and was missing its lid, because he could not identify it despite having studied ceramics for 30 years