teapots

[lobelia321]

I am teaching a new module for the first time next week, on design history. Here's an exercise I'm going to do with students in the first session, and I thought I'd try it on you all as a dry run. :-) Also, because it's kind of fun.



Please look at these seven photos of teapots, made between 1850 and today. Put them in chronological order. Which, do you think, was made first, and which is the most recent teapot? (Note: some of these are kettles, and some are coffeepots, but you get the idea.)

Put your order in a comment and your reason why. I am really looking forward to this!!

Also: which one is your favourite?? (Mine is Photo C.)


Photo A


Photo B


Photo C


Photo D


Photo E


Photo F


Photo G

Comments

[yellow-oranges.livejournal.com]

*glink*
That was hard! I chose B,F,A,C,D,G,E as the order. Mostly going on my wafer-thin impressions of what material-manipulation was available at a certain time, backed up with styles. I'm sure I'm off by a mile. Interesting exercise!

Oh, I think G is my favorite!

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for doing this teapot exercise! I've now made a separate post with the 'correct' answers, if you're interested! It's . :-)

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Duh, I meant here, of course. :-)

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

F A C B E D G? My favorite is D, I think.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for doing this teapot exercise! I've now made a separate post with the 'correct' answers, if you're interested! It's . :-)

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Duh, I meant here, of course. :-)

[cathexys.livejournal.com]

wow, this is hard. A, F, B, D, G...I have no idea where to put C and E, so i'll randomly insert for

A, F, C, B, E, D, G

and now that i'm looking at Isis's, i'm realizing we just inverted the first two...i think it's b/c the meissner like looks so 18th-19th century and the silver evokes weird russian 19th century images for me...

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for doing this teapot exercise! I've now made a separate post with the 'correct' answers, if you're interested! It's . :-)

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Duh, I meant here, of course. :-)

[sonicbookmark.livejournal.com]

um...um...um...um...um...um...

*thinks hard*

...

I love teapots?

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Answers here. :-)

[andolinn.livejournal.com]

I'll give you an order, but I'm not sure about reasons...

From oldest to newest; F, A, B, G, D, E, C.

*bites lip*

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much! Answers to the teapots are here. :-) Ooh, and that icon looks like our cat!

[cinzia.livejournal.com]

Ohh, teapots! I'll give it a try. (Also: hi! *waves*) ^_^

From oldest to newest: F, C, A, E, B, G, D. My favourite is B, with G coming a close second.

*wanders off to have a cuppa*

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for doing this teapot exercise! I've now made a separate post with the 'correct' answers, if you're interested! It's . :-)

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Duh, I meant here, of course. :-)

[cinzia.livejournal.com]

^_^

(D'oh, I got right only the first one! Tsk. ;)

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Ooh, and nice relevant icon! *g* Come stai? Sei felice che Italia e campione del mondo??

[cinzia.livejournal.com]

Hee! Thanks. Tea = happiness. ♥

Io sto bene, grazie! E tu? (Siamo i campioni! Sono molto felice. :D After 24 years, it was right about our turn with the cup... considering it's been made by an Italian sculptor here in Milano, too. /random footie geek-a-tude. Sorry. ^_^)

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Well. I am, afraid, not happy about Italy because they prevented Australia from going ahead, *wails*. I made the mistake of seeing the Germany/Italy game with some Italian friends of the family. I thought, oh this will be jolly fun. Alas, the friend was very, very pro-Italy and I suddenly found that I was very, very pro-Germany, and then I realised that it is not a good idea to watch football matches with somebody who supports the other side. It put me in a very bad mood and I had to control myself -- and in football I don't want to control myself!!! Anyway, we live and learn.

Hah! Next time!! And god, it's been 24 years??? I remember when they won it last!

[rossywar.livejournal.com]

C, F, B, A, E, D, G.

C is my favourite too. :)

[rossywar.livejournal.com]

Sorry, you wanted reasons why too!!

Okay, C because it looks old? It looks like it might be Asian and there is a longer history of drinking tea there and it looks less "finished" so I think it is older. Unless it is made in a deliberately faux-antique style.

F because that set looks v 17th/18th century when tea drinking was a fairly new habit in Europe and had much ceremony attached to it. And was an excuse for rich people to have even more fancy things in their houses. :)

B is a difficult one as the style is so simple it could have been designed at any time over the last couple of centuries. :) I think it is either 19th century/early 20th century simply because I think I've seen teapots from that period before that look like that.

A and E I think are from the same period. A looks like the twee Victorian shit you get in the early-mid 20th century and E is the novelty crap you get from the same period. 30s - 50s. As you can tell, they are my least favourite teapots. :)

D is a lot more modern, but the huge rectangular handles is an exuberance of the modrenist styles, which means that either they're from the 20s/30s (original modernist) or the 80s (revival modernist)

G is the most recent one of the lot mostly because it looks like it was designed by scientists who spent millions of ounds and hours on figuring out the exact ergonomic specifications needed to brew the perfect cup of tea. And then they added a funky handle.

I've probably got it all backwards, but everything I know about design history I learned from tv. :)

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for doing this teapot exercise! I've now made a separate post with the 'correct' answers, if you're interested! It's . :-)

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Duh, I meant here, of course. :-)