This massive exhibition teapot was acquired from Bonhams auction house in 2004. The description below is from their catalog notes.
“This extraordinary teapot made by the Gibson Pottery is thought to have been a promotional piece, heralded at the time as the largest in the world. Reputedly capable of holding some 1024 cups of tea, the pot was press molded in two halves and fired in a bottle kiln that had to be adapted especially to house the huge pieces and to accomodate a saggar in the form of a brick wall built aground them.
According to the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, three teapots were made but by the mid 1950’s only one of them was thought to have survived. Its whereabouts remained a mystery to all except its current owner until last year. According to family history, the vendor’s grandfather, a china and glass retailer in Bolton, was given the teapot during the 1930’s by the proprietor of Gibson in exchange for a dinner service he had ordered for his daughter’s wedding.”