Searching for just the right girly teapot1
tony007 | 02 July, 2009 07:41
Yixing teapot,also called zisha teapot, is known as the best in teapots or China teapots.
Searching for just the right girly teapot
I HAVE decided that I need a teapot. Not just any teapot - a girly, chintzy teapot that your granny might have liked.
The kind that looks best served with dainty biscuits and mismatched porcelain cups so delicate they are almost translucent.
In short, a Maxwell & Williams teapot.
Normally I'm a fan of Art Deco, retro '60s and '70s and sleek modernism. (Yes, all at the same time.) But tea is different.
Tea is about nostalgia, treating yourself, all things ladylike and sharing with friends on a summer afternoon.
If I was going to get a teapot, it was damn well going to be a proper one, one that I actually liked, one that (at least at the time of purchase) I felt would be treasured for decades.
I didn't start off like this. It was a long and winding path, punctured by the casual observation that a good teapot shouldn't dribble, and wasn't it hard to find one these days, and ooh look, that one pours so nicely. The "one" being talked about was Maxwell & Williams. After that I was sold. I just had to find it.
It turns out that the Maxwell & Williams brand is tremendously popular among bourgeois suburbanites. Loads of Living, Boardmans and boutique homeware stores all carry the range.
@Home doesn't - and by the way, I'd really appreciate if they could stock up on the lovely Alex Liddy mugs. I bought four last year and would like some more.
My porcelain pedantism dates back to childhood and a father who insisted on the importance of a good coffee mug. Drinking 10 cups a day will make you critically aware of ergonomics, I guess.
In his eyes, Arzberg's plain white coffee mugs represented the pinnacle of sophistication: light, perfectly balanced so you could easily hold it in one hand, comfortable to sip from and coolly sophisticated in its simplicity.
Personally I feel that Alex Liddy's mugs are very similar, though a touch more angular in design, but he never warmed to them. Nevertheless, an appreciation for fine china was born.
Dear old Dad can't abide flower patterns or fruit or any kind of decoration that wasn't white, black or abstract. So I ended up harbouring a secret liking for all things pretty and girly and frivolous. Hence the flowery pattern of my ideal teapot. And also because it's fun, and I think we should try to have as much fun in our lives as possible.
I like the idea of scrounging around in junk shops and at flea markets for old-fashioned china that has a bit of a history behind it. If the pieces are chipped and a different pattern to all the others, that only makes it more fun. Why be formal?
So one afternoon at Cresta, I set out to find my ideal M& W chintzy teapot. I looked. And I looked some more.
Searching for just the right girly teapot
I HAVE decided that I need a teapot. Not just any teapot - a girly, chintzy teapot that your granny might have liked.
The kind that looks best served with dainty biscuits and mismatched porcelain cups so delicate they are almost translucent.
In short, a Maxwell & Williams teapot.
Normally I'm a fan of Art Deco, retro '60s and '70s and sleek modernism. (Yes, all at the same time.) But tea is different.
Tea is about nostalgia, treating yourself, all things ladylike and sharing with friends on a summer afternoon.
If I was going to get a teapot, it was damn well going to be a proper one, one that I actually liked, one that (at least at the time of purchase) I felt would be treasured for decades.
I didn't start off like this. It was a long and winding path, punctured by the casual observation that a good teapot shouldn't dribble, and wasn't it hard to find one these days, and ooh look, that one pours so nicely. The "one" being talked about was Maxwell & Williams. After that I was sold. I just had to find it.
It turns out that the Maxwell & Williams brand is tremendously popular among bourgeois suburbanites. Loads of Living, Boardmans and boutique homeware stores all carry the range.
@Home doesn't - and by the way, I'd really appreciate if they could stock up on the lovely Alex Liddy mugs. I bought four last year and would like some more.
My porcelain pedantism dates back to childhood and a father who insisted on the importance of a good coffee mug. Drinking 10 cups a day will make you critically aware of ergonomics, I guess.
In his eyes, Arzberg's plain white coffee mugs represented the pinnacle of sophistication: light, perfectly balanced so you could easily hold it in one hand, comfortable to sip from and coolly sophisticated in its simplicity.
Personally I feel that Alex Liddy's mugs are very similar, though a touch more angular in design, but he never warmed to them. Nevertheless, an appreciation for fine china was born.
Dear old Dad can't abide flower patterns or fruit or any kind of decoration that wasn't white, black or abstract. So I ended up harbouring a secret liking for all things pretty and girly and frivolous. Hence the flowery pattern of my ideal teapot. And also because it's fun, and I think we should try to have as much fun in our lives as possible.
I like the idea of scrounging around in junk shops and at flea markets for old-fashioned china that has a bit of a history behind it. If the pieces are chipped and a different pattern to all the others, that only makes it more fun. Why be formal?
So one afternoon at Cresta, I set out to find my ideal M& W chintzy teapot. I looked. And I looked some more.
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