Tuesday 9 November 2010

Obsessed with tea? Moi?


This pic of The Tea Pot Dome in Zillah, Washington, reminded me that I have quite a collection of teapots of different shapes, size and material.

None of mine is as unique as this one which is one of the oldest 'gas' stations in the country and was built over 100 years ago. It was built as a monument to the  famous Tea Pot Dome bribery scandal in the White House during the administration of President Warren Harding.




I gave my teapots a bit of a clean for this photo. They're all used regularly, some more regularly than others. My favourite brown earthenware coffee-pot-style 'three mug' breakfast pot lost its handle a couple of weeks ago, so I now use the small stainless steel one. The silver pots in the background are the result of trawling second hand and charity shops in search of classic British Rail's dining car ware.

The largest (green) earthenware pot holds six or seven mugs, depending on size. Next in size are the four-five mug pot (red Chatsworth earthenware) can be used for loose tea with a removable infuser basket), the floral china four-five mug, followed by the four-mug white earthenware and a couple of gold-rimmed white china ones. The smallest is the two-mug Brown Betty in the front row and two 'tea-for-one' pot/cup sets.  The most recent addition (and the one I'm using most with the last packet of Barry's tea) is the pot-bellied-stainless-steel-with-ball-legs version of the 'Chatsworth, with its removable wire 'infuser'.