A SAUCY teapot that once belonged to Southampton’s steamiest socialite has been sold for a staggering £22,800.

Lady Elizabeth Craven scandalised polite society by using her beauty to attract a string of lovers, as well as embarking on many affairs and hosting a series of notorious “tea parties’’ at her home.

Later, in the 18th century, Lady Elizabeth, who remarried and took the exotic sounding title, Margravine of Anspach, built a house in Southampton during the famous spa period when royalty, aristocrats and members of high society all flocked to the city to swim and enjoy the sea-air.

The lascivious lady ordered the large Georgian-style property to be built on Southampton’s Western Esplanade but the Margravine took little interest in the home.

The teapot, which was sold by London auctioneers, Bonham’s, is said to be modelled on the infamous Lady Elizabeth, playwright, socialite and one time resident of Craven Cottage, close to the site of today’s Fulham Football Club. The teapot bears the words “Lady Craveing’s Teapot’, a pun on her name and various appetites. It first appeared for sale in 1875 and the teapot’s shape may, in fact, be a reference to the tea parties hosted by Lady Elizabeth which became the gossip of London society.

The teapot is referred to in one of her plays when she mentions a character who “like a tea-pot stands exactly thus.’’ After her first husband finally tired of his wife’s most public affairs, Lady Elizabeth was sent to France where she became close to the Margrave of Anspach, a nephew of King George II’s wife, Queen Caroline and also a nephew of Frederick the Great When her husband died his widow married the Margrave the following month.

A former friend said at the time: “Lady Craven received the news of her Lord’s death on a Friday, went into weeds on Saturday, and into white satin and many diamonds on Sunday.’’ The Margrave’s finances could not keep up with his wife’s pretensions and after his death in 1806, his widow moved to Naples where she died at Craven Villa in 1828.