It is our pleasure to offer this rare example of Arts and Crafts period silverwork from the exceptional firm of Shreve & Co. San Francisco, founded in 1852. The hammered sterling silver and ivory teapot, in the fourteenth century pattern, is striking in it's appearance with it's applied strap work and rivets and is in excellent condition. The handle includes two nicely polished ivory heat insulators. The teapot bears an engraved letter "F" as shown in a separate photograph below. This is truly an exquisite and significant object, worthy of a museum. It measures 10" wide by 7" tall and is larger than the coffee pot in the " XIV Century" breakfast set shown in the museum exhibition catalogue from the 1990 Los Angeles County Museum of Art Exhibition: "American Arts & Crafts: Virtue in Design" (page 116) from the collection of Max Palevsky and Jodie Evans. The coffee pot in that set is marked "1 pint", while the teapot in this auction is marked "2 pints". The Oakland Museum Exhibition catalogue from 1993 devoted an entire page to an image of a "XIV Century" gold plated brass and ivory coffee pot, a gift of the Women's Board (page 142), which measures 2" less in width. While size is no more important than design and execution, at which this teapot does excel, if you have one or both of the catalogues to compare, it will help in evaluating the teapot. Shreve's XIV century silver was produced in the early 1900's and until around 1920. John Bellis and Arthur Thumler were among the silversmiths who trained at Shreve and later opened their own shops in San Francisco just after the turn of the century. This exceptional teapot was recently purchased in a home where it has been most of it's life. I have included an image of the teapot in the tarnished condition in which we received it, before we polished it. The dark areas very close to the strap work are simply areas where it was not thoroughly polished. There are a few short shallow scratches around 1/16" long, as shown in the close-up, which I mention only for the sake of accuracy. The teapot bears the impressed Shreve "bell" hallmark between two shields, each bearing the letter "S" with "Sterling" and "San Francisco" below, opposite "2 pints". This teapot can be examined at our shop in Pasadena, Voorhees Craftsman Antiques, located at 1415 N. Lake Ave., Pasadena, open Fridays and Saturdays from noon to 5:00 pm. We sell all our items fully guaranteed with return priveledges provided. Shipping and insurance to be paid by the buyer, we do not charge for packing. Visa and MasterCard accepted as are checks and money orders. California residents please add 7.5% sales tax or supply valid resale form. Thanks for looking.