I found this beauty while travelling in the Bristol area recently but it's actually not a product of any local factoriy. It was in fact manufactured by a company based in Manchester call Mann, Webb & Co in about 1842. They were a rather unique company in as much as they were tea importers as well as pot manufactures and were very successful until the late 1860's. I really like these pots as you will notice the fancy flags or banners visible on the upper level of the structure - these were the (original) tea advertisements for the company's tea importing side of the business and the company greatly reduced the purchase price in exchange for displaying the banners on a permanent basis.
This pot is a beautiful design in as much as the tea compartment was quite large (the windows in the upper area are 'level guages' and not windows for looking out of!) and the living quarters were really very comfortable even for the large families of the day. The little structure on the side has often been mistaken as a common garden shed but was actually both the coal bunker and tea caddy. Not many of these 'caddy bunkers' have survived.
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