The royal teapot of Virginia’s last royal governor is coming home, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation announced Monday. The silver artifact belonged to John Murray, a Scottish nobleman and the fourth earl of Dunmore; now it belongs to Colonial Williamsburg.
“This remarkable teapot owned by Virginia’s last royal governor represents our nation’s history in a unique way that enables us to authentically tell America’s enduring story,” Mitchell Reiss, the foundation’s president and CEO, said in a news release. “Gifts such as this one permit us to better convey the human dimension of our country’s history.”
Made in London in the early 1770s, the item is engraved with the Murray family armorial crest beneath an earl’s coronet.
Lord Dunmore initially served as royal governor of New York before King George III sent him to Williamsburg in 1771. By 1775, as armed rebellion neared, he seized the colony’s store of gunpowder and ultimately fled the Governor’s Palace two months later.
The teapot is one of a handful of objects remaining from Lord Dunmore’s governorship. It is believed to have returned to England and passed down through generations until descendant Angus Sladen, who lives in Hampshire, England, gave it to Colonial Williamsburg.
“I have a great love of and admiration for the United States,” he said in a news release. “It seemed clear to me that this small object most probably witnessed part of American Revolutionary history. Colonial Williamsburg, with its great collections and knowledgeable curators and experts, seemed the ideal home for it, and I felt it might mean a great deal to visitors.”
The teapot will be featured in an exhibition at the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg in 2019.
“Given his explosive role in Virginia’s Revolutionary uprising, Dunmore’s personal possessions are now powerful interpretive tools,” Ron Hurst, the Foundation’s Carlisle H. Humelsine chief curator and vice president for collections, conservation, and museums, said in a news release. “This well-preserved teapot comes as a very important addition to our collections.”
