ceramic teapot

The 'Black Teapot' was a Victorian workhouse euphemism for euthanasia, and was a phrase common in East Anglia. When people died suddenly it was said they had been 'given the Black Teapot': meaning a dose of poison in their tea.

This pot was made especially for an exhibition of contemporary teapots at Norwich Castle in 1995. Its three makers, Roger Law, Janice Tchalenko and Pablo Bach, all designed puppets for the hugely successful satirical TV show Spitting Image in the 1980s, which Law also co-created. Two of the three, Law and Tchalenko, grew up in East Anglia. Here, they decided to imagine what a 'Black Teapot' might really look like!

Teapots, as well as being practical objects, have always inspired artists to experiment with form and decoration. There is a long historic tradition of applying three-dimensional decorative motifs to ceramics, but this pot pushes that tradition to wittily sinister extremes. It is infested with venomous creatures, which appear unnervingly real as they rear up from its dark, shiny surface.