Recent Acquisition - A Spode Cadogan Teapot
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A Cadogan teapot donated to the Queenscliffe Historical Museum by member Davydd Shaw is quite a puzzle. When Davydd received it in about 1970 from an elderly relative, Annie Miles, she passed it on with the words, ‘It is very old and interesting.’
Firstly, why the name Cadogan? The Earls of Cadogan and their relatives, the Sloane family, were wealthy connoisseurs and collectors residing in the Chelsea area of London. In the family collection is a lidless Chinese porcelain wine-pot. It was the inspiration for the strange lidless teapot known as the Cadogan teapot. |
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Secondly, how does an old and interesting teapot work? It is filled upside down through a tube running from the base to the upper part of the interior, so that it can be turned the right way and no liquid will escape. Unsurprisingly, the idea did not prove popular so these teapots are uncommon. Perhaps with a thought to hygiene, the teapot was used for hot water.
Both Copeland and Spode used the Rockingham lead based brown glaze on their earthenware Cadogan teapots. It contains poisonous manganese dioxide.
Our Cadogan teapot was owned by Mrs Annie Jane Miles (1882-1976), nee Sims. Annie married John Coster Miles (1879 to 1918) in 1906.
Both Copeland and Spode used the Rockingham lead based brown glaze on their earthenware Cadogan teapots. It contains poisonous manganese dioxide.
Our Cadogan teapot was owned by Mrs Annie Jane Miles (1882-1976), nee Sims. Annie married John Coster Miles (1879 to 1918) in 1906.
Taken in 1917 Of John and Annie Miles and their six children.
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John Miles was a Staff Sergeant Major serving in the Instructional Staff at No 1 Company, Geelong Australian Garrison Artillery. The family resided at 3 Loch Street, Geelong, but relocated to Queenscliff for several months during 1917 prior to John’s departure for the Front in July. He joined 58th Battalion and was sent to Villers Bretonneaux in France. On 26th April 1918 he was killed by a shell lobbed into the trench where he was serving out rations to his men.
‘Jack’ Miles was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. Much loved by all who knew him, he is remembered on six local Honour Boards and a memorial stained-glass window in St Marks Church, Leopold. |
Annie Miles was left a war widow with six children to raise. She was a positive and enterprising person, skilful with handicrafts and interested in fine things. She learnt re-upholstering, wood carving and French polishing in order to supplement her pension with a business of restoring and re-selling antique furniture. This may have been the path of the Cadogan teapot now on display in the Queenscliffe Historical Museum. It has been mended.
Annie’s brother, Samuel Hubert Sims (1866 to 1973) kindly watched over her. He was a chemist in Queenscliff in 1928 and on the Voters Roll of the Borough 1944/45. His daughter, Joan Kennedy Sims, worked in the pharmacy until at least the 1990s.
‘It is a privilege to grow old’, said Annie Miles when in her nineties - understandable in view of her husband’s early death.
Researched by Davydd Shaw, Bryan Marra and Rosemary Brown, March 2020
Annie’s brother, Samuel Hubert Sims (1866 to 1973) kindly watched over her. He was a chemist in Queenscliff in 1928 and on the Voters Roll of the Borough 1944/45. His daughter, Joan Kennedy Sims, worked in the pharmacy until at least the 1990s.
‘It is a privilege to grow old’, said Annie Miles when in her nineties - understandable in view of her husband’s early death.
Researched by Davydd Shaw, Bryan Marra and Rosemary Brown, March 2020
