Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Consider the Teapot

At first tea was brewed in bowls! Gasp! But pots popped up in the Song Dynasty (AD 970-1279).   Both tea and teapots wandered over to the West in the 1650s.  In Britain in the 1740s, your blue and white teapots were all the rage.  Teapots have been produced by classy companies such as Wedgewood and Spode!  The proverbial ante was upped in the 1860's with animal-shaped pots made of majolica*.  (What the heck is majolica?  I can never remember.  See below.)   Some models were curvier than others, some plain some fancy.  "But were they short and stout?" she fretted?   One could describe as 'short and stout' the monumentally garish teapot-in-the-shape-of-a-house she gave to her sister in the 1980's.  Whew.


Books on Teapot History
Source:  A Spot of Tea. By: Timm, Maureen, Antiques & Collecting Magazine, Apr99
*Majolica:  "earthenware covered with an opaque tin glaze and decorated on the glaze before firing;" Source:  Merriam Webster Online 

1 comment:

cboy said...

Cute-and informative!