07/28/2021
What a story of our city’s namesake!
Ceramics like this teapot give us insight into our history. The Mint Museum Randolph is a cool place on a hot summer day to learn even more interesting stories.
Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, a small duchy in northern Germany, was seventeen years old when she arrived at St. James’s Palace in London to meet her future husband, George III, on the eve of their wedding. They were married on September 8, 1761, and two weeks later, on September 22, were crowned the monarchs of Great Britain and Ireland. The teapot's transfer-printed portrait of Queen Charlotte derives from a mezzotint engraved by Thomas Frye (1710–62) in May 1762, when Charlotte agreed to stop and pose for him one evening on her way to the theater with the king. The teapot is on view in Portals to the Past: British Ceramics, 1675–1825 at Mint Museum Randolph.
Image Caption: Wedgwood (Staffordshire, England, 1759–present). Teapot, circa 1763, cream-colored earthenware, lead glaze (enamel decoration). Gift of Miss M. Mellanay Delhom. D1981.99.10A-B
