The Power of Provenance : Dr Johnson’s Teapot and the Materialization of Fame

Abstract: In the British Museum collection, there is an eighteenth-century Chinese teapot that is named on its label ‘Dr Johnson’s teapot’. Evoking the famous lexicographer and tea drinker Samuel Johnson (1708-84), this teapot has been given a name that associates it with a historical celebrity and suggests an authentic provenance. While it has been known as ‘Dr Johnson’s teapot’ since the mid-nineteenth-century, provenance research demonstrates that the connection to Samuel Johnson is somewhat indirect. It also reveals the practice of what might be called ‘provenance branding’ which has a profound impact on the reception and interpretation of objects and works of art. This article explores and defines this phenomenon through the example of the British Museum teapot, tracing its history from its origins in China to several English collections and finally the British Museum. In the process, the names by which this object, and several closely related ones, has been known will be investigated w.... https://journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/transfer/article/view/91511

Object Details

• Location: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Frankfurt am Main
• Extent: Online-Ressource
• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: The Power of Provenance ; number:1 ; day:21 ; month:12 ; year:2022 ; Transfer ; Heft 1 (21.12.2022)

Contributors, Places and Time

• Creator: Pierson, Stacey

Further information

• DOI: 10.48640/tf.2022.1.91511
• URN: urn:nbn:de:101:1-2023063012401446109548
• Rights: Open Access; Der Zugriff auf das Objekt ist unbeschränkt möglich.
• Last update: 14.08.2025, 10:44 AM CEST