OFFERSOffersThe latest special deals available to readers of the ReviewNow an established event in the south of England's arts andantiques calendar, the ever popular Esher Hall Antiques andFine Art Fair is returning for a fourth year. Featuring over 30top quality dealers, the fair attracts large numbers of visitorsto browse and buy from a huge range of items includingfurniture, paintings and bronzes, jewellery and orientalcarpets All works are for sale with strict vetting conditions. Claim 2 for 1 on tickets - normal price £5 each -on production of a copy of NADFAS Review.Venue: Esher Hall, Sandown Park Racecourse, Esher, SurreyKT10 9AJ; Open: Fri 7 - Sun 9 October 2011; Tel: 01797 252030, info@adfl.co.ukInvaluable churchorgan guide Throughout the UK, ChurchRecorders relish the numerouschallenges their activities create.The primer and aide-mémoire forChurch Recorders is InsideChurches: A Guide to ChurchFurnishings, but just two pages are devoted to church organs. Anew illustrated publication writtenby a knowledgeable amateurorganist and friend of ChurchRecorders, Brian Gill, will thereforeprove invaluable to all ChurchRecorders as it contains, as wellas the details of the necessarydescriptions, a great deal ofpractical advice. Copies cost £5 and readers are entitled to free P&P. Contact Mary Balfour:mary.balfour@btopenworld.comThe First Actresses: NellGwyn to Sarah SiddonsThe 20/21 British Art Fair, whichchampions modern British art, willtake place from 14-18 Septemberand is due to be opened by thehighly acclaimed author andscriptwriter, Anthony Horowitz, at5pm on the 14th. Held at the RoyalCollege of Art, it is the first big fairof the season. Readers can claim2 for 1 entry on production of theNADFAS membership card.Venue: Royal College of Art,Kensington Gore, London SW72EU; Open: Wed: 3-9pm; Thurs:11am-8pm; Fri/Sat: 11am-7pm;Sun: 11am-6pm; Admission: £9(concessions £6); Tel: 020 87421611, info@britishartfair.co.uk,www.britishartfair.co.uk Right: Jumpin' at the Woodsideby Alan DavieBritish art at its bestFifty NADFAS members are being offered tickets to the following autumn fairs, showcasingavariety of arts and crafts, jewellery and sillversmithing: Art & Contemporary Designer CraftFair, Richmond Upon Thames, 7-9 October, Art & Contemporary DesignerCraft Fair,Sevenoaks, 21-23 October, Contemporary Craft & Design Fair, Crowthorne, 28-30 October,Desire Jewellery & Silversmithing Fair, Winchester, 18-20 November, ChristmasContemporary Craft & Design Fair, RHS Garden Wisley, 24-28 November. To apply, quote'NADFAS 11 Offer' and email your name and address to info@craftinfocus.com or write to CraftIn Focus, PO Box 942, Maidstone, ME15 0YB quoting 'NADFAS 11 Offer'.The Esher Hall Antiques and Fine Art FairFree tickets to autumn fairswww.nadfas.org.ukNADFAS REVIEW / AUTUMN 2011 49The National Portrait Gallery'swinter exhibition The FirstActresseswill explore the vibrant and controversialrelationship between art, gender and the theatre in 18th-century England. It willcombine much-loved masterpieceswith newly-discovered works to reveal the ways in whichactresses used portraiture toenhance their reputations. Order an Afternoon Tea in thePortrait Restaurant and enjoy acomplimentary glass ofchampagne on presentation ofyour ticket to the exhibition. Book on 020 7312 2490 andquote 'The First Actresses', orvisit in person. Valid 20 October2011 -8 January 2012. Onlyavailable Mon - Fri, 3.30pm-4.45pm. One redemption perticket. Cannot to be used inconjunction with any other offerand subject to availability.www.npg.org.ukAbove: Mary Robinson - Perditaby John Hoppner, 1782© Chawton House Library, Hampshire

Above:KateMalone GiantQueen teapot(c1996)Below:A typical earlyStaffordshire'agateware'teapot (c1750) Right(clockwise):Aview of theTwinings TeapotGallery, NorwichCastle Museum;Walter Keeler's'functional'teapots; Thispineapple teapotfrom c1760symbolised itsowner's wealthand good taste Fine chinaNorwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery has one of themost impressive teapot collections in the UK. Dr Francesca Vanke, Curator of Decorative Art, talksus through the many and varied treasures on displayNorwich Castle has had a longand varied history. Built by theNormans as a royal palace in1121, it had become a prison by the14th century, which it remained until the1880s. By 1894 the prison had beenmoved elsewhere and Norwich Castlewas transformed into a museum.Today Norwich Castle Museum & ArtGallery is a thriving regional museum,part of the county-wide NorfolkMuseums and Archaeology Service. Itholds designated collections in fine art,decorative art, natural history andarchaeology, and runs an ambitious andvaried temporary exhibition programme,frequently featuring loans from nationalmuseums and galleries. Among itsdecorative art collections, it is bestknown for its important holdings ofNorwich silver, Lowestoft porcelain andceramic teapots.The story of Norwich Castle's teapotsis typical of the way in which manymuseums acquire their collections. In1946 Colonel Bulwer, a local collectorand trustee, bequeathed around 60018th-century ceramic teapots tothe Castle. His collection, mainlybuilt up in the 1920s-30s,contains many raritieswhichNORWICH CASTLE MUSEUMwould be very difficult to come by today.His generous bequest gave NorwichCastle a firm basis upon which toestablish a world-class teapot collection.Among the highlights of the Bulwercollection are early 18th-century Chineseexport teapots, quirky and unusualStaffordshire earthenware pieces anddelicate English soft-paste porcelainwares. One small 'agateware' pot of1750 (below) is typical of an earlyStaffordshire teapot. It is made ofdifferent coloured clays mixed togetherto resemble the random striatedpatterns of agate. Its small size reflectsthe high price of tea and its status as aluxury foodstuff in the first half of the18th century. The lion-shaped knob onthe lid and the snake handle are Orientalin style, reminding us that at the time, alltea came from China. The first teapots available in Europecame from China. However, repairs werecommon, showing how highly valuedporcelain was, more so than any othertype of ceramic at the time,because of its beauty, rarityand expense. There is an early18th-century porcelain potin the collection thathas a Europeansilver replacementspout ofsimilar date to the pot itself. Ceramic wares in Chinesestyle were very fashionable, displayingtheir owners' cosmopolitan taste, as wellas the wealth that enabled them to drinktea on a regular basis. Tea was highlytaxed, so that a pound of tea costbetween around 8s -£1 per pound inthe mid-18th century. Compared to beerat 1d a quart, or gin at 2d a half pint thiswas extortionate. Tea drinking wastherefore an important symbol ofgracious living, reflected in the fact thatmany aristocratic families chose to havetheir portraits painted at the tea table. Colonel Bulwer's bequest put NorwichCastle 'on the map' for teapots, so thatwhen another collector, Philip Miller, wascontemplating selling his teapot collectionalmost 50 years later, he offered it toNorwich Castle. This truly monumentalgathering of over 2,000 British ceramicteapots arrived in the Castle in 1992.Fortuitously enough, date-wise thiscollection began where the Bulwercollection left off. It consisted mainly of19th-century teapots, with additionalcups, sugar bowls and cream jugs. Typical of the wares from Miller'scollection is an elegant neo-classicalChamberlain's Worcester tea-set ofaround 1800, white and flutedto resemble a Greek column,with elegant gilded decoration.By 30 years later, this decorativeminimalism had given way to itsopposite, the exuberantly flamboyantneo-rococo or Romantic style, withcurves and curlicues and abundantgilding of every possible surface. It isnoticeable that these later teapots aremuch larger in size than those of theprevious century. Tea taxes fell graduallyover the second half of the 18th centuryand, by 1839, Britain had begun to50NADFAS REVIEW / AUTUMN 2011www.nadfas.org.uk