In the Kamm Collection there is a porcelain teapot modeled in the shape of a figure called Lady Craveing’s Tea-Pot. At first glance this might appear to be a somewhat ordinary object. However, in truth, it is anything but ordinary. This teapot is conceivably the only one of its kind in existence and it tells quite a story. At the heart of that story is the infamous Lady Elizabeth Craven who lived in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. She was a mother, a writer, a world traveler, and one of the most outspoken women of her day. However, Lady Craven seems to be primarily remembered for her scandalous love affairs.
Lady Craven
Born Elizabeth Berkeley in 1750, she was the youngest daughter of “one of the most aristocratic families in England.”[i] At the age of sixteen, she was pressured to marry William Craven, a cousin of King George III. At the time of their marriage, he was a man of modest means, but that was expected to change. In 1769 he inherited his family’s vast estates and the title of Baron.[ii] Lady Craven became, in turn, Baroness Craven.[iii] The couple would have seven children together. After the Baron’s death, Lady Craven married again. Her second husband was Charles Alexander, the Margrave of Brandenburg, Anspach, and Bayreuth.[iv] With this union, Lady Craven became the Margravine of those principalities. After the Margrave ceded his sovereignty to Prussia in 1791, the couple settled in England. From Brandenburgh House on the Thames, they held court hosting parties and performances at their own private theater. After the Margrave’s death in 1806, Lady Craven would eventually settle in Naples, Italy. At this juncture she liked to be called Princess Berkeley, which was a title bestowed upon her by the Holy Roman Emperor in 1793. Lady Craven died in 1828.[v] She caught a chill after working in the garden at her villa and never recovered. She was seventy-eight years old.
This quick summary might lead one to believe that Lady Craven had a lavish life without controversy. However, in truth, it was nothing of the sort. Her marriage to William Craven was an unhappy one. They were incompatible and both parties engaged in extramarital affairs. For her part, Lady Craven “[aspired] to [be] something more than the wife of Lord Craven.”[vi] She wanted to be a writer and yearned to be accepted into London’s literary circles. In May of 1773 their marriage reached a turning point. Baron Craven caught his wife in a compromising situation with the French Ambassador, Monsieur Le Comte de Guînes. Instead of quietly dealing with the situation, he publicly threatened payment from the ambassador for damages. Soon the press caught wind, and their dirty laundry was aired for all of London to see.[vii]
This situation continued to sour in the coming years, and the rumor mill incessantly churned out stories about Lady Craven. When she hosted tea parties at her home on the bank of the Thames, some found the events “tasteful.”[viii] Others, however, considered her home, which was called Craven Cottage, a “rendezvous for extra-marital sex.”[ix] The gossips eventually “[connected Lady Craven] with every man she was on friendly terms with” in society.[x] These stories may have bruised her reputation, but some chose to overlook these transgressions whether truthful or not. Among her supporters was the politician and writer Horace Walpole. In 1783 he wrote to a friend about Lady Craven saying, “You must have seen in the newspapers much gross abuse of a pretty, ingenious friend of mine for a low amour with one of her own servants, for which I seriously believe there was not the smallest foundation…”[xi]
Ultimately, the Cravens negotiated a separation. He gave his wife a sum of £1500 a year and as customary, he retained custody of the children. Lady Craven was fortunately allowed to keep her youngest son, Keppel Richard Craven. He would have a close relationship with his mother for the remainder of her life. A mother’s right to her children would be a subject that she would speak openly about in the future. Lady Craven felt this eighteenth century practice of “[robbing]” children from a mother during a divorce or separation was not only “cruel,” but “unjust.”[xii]
In 1783 Lady Craven departed for France. There, she would be presented at the French court and would meet the Margrave for the first time.[xiii] After traveling for a couple of years, she accepted an invitation from the Margrave to live in Anspach. Their relationship had grown even closer through letters during her travels. A selection of these letters, entitled A Journey through Crimea to Constantinople, was published in 1789. The couple, who were both still married, did not hide their relationship as it grew more serious. As expected, this arrangement became fodder for gossips and the press. For example, the scandalous magazine Bon Ton published a suggestive etching called “The Amorous Margrave and the Titled Wanderer” which pokes fun at the happy couple. It was published in 1791. Coincidentally, that same year the Margrave’s wife died as well as Baron Craven. This allowed them to finally marry. After the nuptials, the couple quickly boarded a ship bound for England.
Kamm Collection
Lady Craveing’s Tea-Pot was probably made sometime in the late eighteenth century by Derby or maybe even the Chelsea-Derby factory.[xiv] The vessel’s neo-classical style is often associated with those makers.[xv] It is modeled in the form of a figure wearing a red officer’s uniform with a black trifold hat, sword, and a garter star. The lid forms the head, the teapot’s body is the torso, and the handle is a bent protruding arm. A blue garter sash is draped across the body of the figure. In gold lettering, on the front of the sash, it says, “Lady Craveing’s Tea-pot” and on the back, it contains a quote from the prologue of a play called The Sleep-Walker. It says, “Another wipes his brow in mighty fuss/ And, like a teapot, stands exactly thus.” Lady Craven wrote these lines and translated this play from a version in French called Le Somnambule. [xvi] The sash also includes the note, “performed at Newbury, written by Lady C.” The Sleep-Walker was presented at her theater in Benham Park near Newbury, England in 1778 and was published that same year by Horace Walpole.[xvii]
The title Lady Craveing’s Teapot is certainly “a pun on her name and presumably her appetite for love.”[xviii] There is also a theory that the name could be referencing those tea parties at Craven Cottage before she left for France. The question is, who is Lady Craveing’s Tea-pot depicting? Sales records associated with the vessel, which date to 1875, describe it as being a portrayal of Lady Craven herself, and indeed the face of the figure is very feminine in nature.[xix] However, a recent discovery of an etching at the British Museum in London alters this theory. The etching, which illustrates this exact teapot, contains the label “The Margrave of Anspach & Bayreuth.” It is dated 1788, which is just three years before the couple married. This would undoubtably explain the inclusion of the sash. In 1786 Lady Craven began campaigning to get her lover, the Margrave, the blue ribbon of the Order of the Garter. She probably felt that this distinguished honor would help bring them both greater standing among London’s elite. These attempts were ultimately unsuccessful. If this is truly the Margrave, the vessel can be seen in perhaps a more scintillating light. Essentially, it could “[depict] the Margrave as a priapic teapot” with a very upright spout whose base is surrounded by delicate green leaves. [xx] This would not be a new portrayal. In “The Amorous Margrave and the Titled Wanderer” he is presented in a similar suggestive manner.
Towards the end of her life, Lady Craven wrote a poem that has gained popularity in recent years. The first portion of the poem reads, “I thank thee God, that I have lived/ In this great world and known its many joys.”[xxi] Few people can honestly make this statement, but Lady Craven could with “truth and certainty.”[xxii]
Further Reading:
Craven, Elizabeth Craven, Baroness, Alexander Meyrick Broadley, and Lewis Melville. The Beautiful Lady Craven; the Original Memoirs of Elizabeth, Baroness Craven, Afterwards Margravine of Anspach and Bayreuth and Princess Berkeley of the Holy Roman Empire (1750-1828). London: John Lane, 1914.
Gasper, Julia. Elizabeth Craven: Writer, Feminist, and European. Wilmington, DE: Vernon Press, 2018.
Mackintosh, Iain. “Riding the Three Tygers of Sex, of Society and of Show Business: An Appraisal of the Prowess of The Margravine of Anspach (1750-1828)”, The New Rambler, Journal of the Johnson Society of London, Serial No. G I, 2018-2019.
Notes: