Coffee pot

Sigfrid Carlenius Junior, Tornio, 1765. Height 27,5 cm.

The basic shape of this pot is a pear shape typical of rococo pots. The handle has been carved out of wood and coloured black. Sigfrid Carlenius Junior (active in 1754–1766) was from Tornio. After being apprenticed to his father, Sigrid Carlenius Senior, he obtained his master’s diploma in Tornio in 1753, still belonging to the goldsmith guild in Stockholm. Carlenius was the alderman of the goldsmith guild in Tornio from its founding in 1775 until 1782. After giving up his goldsmith profession in 1782, Sigfrid Carlenius became a merchant.

Tea, coffee, and chocolate – i.e., cocoa – were popular hot drinks in the 18th century. Several countries’ East India Companies had imported substantial amounts of tea into Europe since the beginning of the 17th century, and even cocoa beans were imported into Europe for the first time in the 17th century. Coffee became the favourite drink of Europeans at the end of the 18th century, which influenced the creation of a new object culture, due to private coffee drinking and the public café culture.

It is also telling of the close relations of the coastal towns of the Gulf of Bothnia with elsewhere in Europe and the related influences that such an extravagant object, perfectly compliant to rococo forms, was made in the remotest corner of the Gulf. The geographical distance is not as much visible in the craftmanship as in the proportions.

Source:

Borg 1972 (1935), s. 379–380.