Toleware Teapot c. 1939

This 'Toleware Teapot' was created by J. Howard Iams, sometime between 1855 and 1995. It's like looking at a folk memory of domestic life, isn’t it? There's this wonderful tension between the flat, illustrative style and the attempt to capture the three-dimensional form of the teapot. Look at those flowers, bold and a little bit clumsy, painted with what looks like oil or acrylic on paper, with a clear love for the subject. The drawing of the vessel is wonky but very full of character, like a child's rendering of a still life! Iams is interested in how the painted decoration sits on the metal surface, and the texture of the paint itself becomes part of the story. It reminds me a little of some of the early American modernists, like Marsden Hartley, who were drawn to the simple, powerful forms of folk art. But where Hartley was a trained artist appropriating that naivety, Iams seems to genuinely embody it. It’s this authenticity, this unpretentious approach, that makes the piece so charming.