Hot water urn with biblical scenes

Tea—imported from China in increasingly high volumes over the course of the eighteenth century, but still relatively expensive—could be conserved by diluting it with hot water from an urn. Unusually large for an enamel object, this urn is decorated with two monumental scenes from the Old Testament, in addition to several smaller designs adorning its foot and cover. Both images on the urn’s body are based on prints published by Joseph Wagner ca. 1745, after Jacopo Amigoni (a mid-eighteenth-century Italian artist best known for his society portraits and decorative frescoes in the Venetian Rococo style). On one side of the urn, Abigail offers bread and other provisions to David, entreating him not to exact revenge on her husband for initially refusing to provide help. On the other side, Abraham’s steward selects Rebecca, who had been fetching water from a well, to be the wife of Isaac, Abraham’s son.


Enameled objects like this one were intended to imitate the lustrous quality of porcelain at more affordable prices. By the middle of the eighteenth century, technological innovations had made it possible to roll copper, instead of the far costlier gold, into very thin sheets. Powdered glass mixed with minerals (to determine the opacity and color of the enamel) would then be applied onto the copper sheets and fired at high temperatures. A design—whether a famous portrait, generic pastoral scene, or floral motif— could be painted on by hand or copied from an engraving through the newly invented process of transfer printing. Many enameled objects combined both methods of decoration and would be refired after the application of each new layer or color.