On the bottom is inscribed: "Fearful consequences, through the laws of Natural Selection and Evolution, of living up to one's teapot." Also: "Budge."
Designed in December 1881 by James Hadley (Britain, ca. 1838-1903), manufactured by the Worcester Royal Porcelain Co., Worcester, Britain (est. 1862).
Produced in a limited edition of a few dozen pieces during the first run of Gilbert and Sullivan's 1881 operatic satire of the aesthetic movement, Patience.
"The few that were produced sold for 1 1/2 guineas, half ... the cost of the best seat at a performance of Patience." Cf. Wilson, p. 106.
The inscription on the teapot is a play on Wilde's famous comment, "I find it harder and harder every day to live up to my blue china," purportedly made at Oxford after purchasing two vases for his room.
A piece from the large commercial ephemera collection in the Gilbert and Sullivan Collection at the Pierpont Morgan Library.
Hadley, James, ca. 1838-1903, designer, attributed name.