Born in 1954 in a German factory, this teapot achieved fame in the 1970s as one of the first 3D computer graphics challenges.

Friesland Porzellan is a Dutch-owned German homewares brand that manufactures ceramic items from porcelain tea and coffee pots to earthenware dinner sets. The factory, located in the small town of Varel, about 80 kilometres northwest of Bremen, is the unlikely birthplace of computer graphics favourite the ‘Utah teapot’.

The teapot was not always called Utah. In fact, from its debut in 1954 to 2017, the company merely called it the haushaltsteekanne (‘household teapot’), a staple of the brand. So how did it get its American name?

Enter Martin Newell, a PhD candidate at the University of Utah. In 1974, Martin was researching graphic design, rendering objects such as chess pieces, donuts and urns into 3D computer representations. This process focused on things like light and shadow and reflection to depict the ‘3D-ness’ of the object.

The problem was that Newell had mastered the objects at hand – they were too simple. He started ranting about finding a new model to his wife who – according to my dramatic re-enactment of the moment – calmly poured him a cup of tea and look pointedly at the teapot. You guessed it, it was a Friesland Porzellan haushaltsteekanne.

The teapot was the perfect model to challenge Newell. With a range of different surfaces and angles, from its rounded body to its longer spout, its perky open handle and solid lid, it gave him plenty of ways to look at the elements of light, shadow and reflection in a single object.

Newell mapped the geometry of the teapot, using it as a model in his work. Crucially, he made this map available to other 3D graphic designers, who in turn used it to experiment with their renderings. Thus it became a staple of 3D design, often making a cameo in pop culture media (like this scene in Pixar’s Toy Story).

It is also one of the curiously low-tech objects available for viewing at the Computer History Museum in California – Newell donated the original teapot for display. So the next time you play a game or watch a film that contains 3D graphics, think of the teapot that re-defined the discipline.

This article originally appeared in AUSTCS enews 1 September 2020. Mailchimp no longer allows external links to the original newsletter.