Teapot Talk

Shannon News, 27 December 1929, Page 4

Teapot Talk

THE MANDARIN WHO PRESIDES AT MOST PARTIES.

Just teapots! Big teapots, little teapots, fat teapots, thin teapots, teapots with dragons and teapots with design of old .Ki.glish -posies, round teapots, square teapots, teapots of homely brown and teapots of gold and blue iris pattern. '

If you want a teapot there is infinite variety, yet in essentials the article is the same as that in which the first brew was made ir. Fngland some t'oo odd years ago. Strange that after all these years the teapot is still a stranger at the feast. He has never taken out papers of naturalisation. Even with his design of roses, he ir, stili tho mandarin at a select English tea party. The first teapots came from China, and for many years the brew was mixed in these and these alone. Then, somewhere about 17a0, the British manufacturers wakened, just a little jate, in the all-British way, and began to mould thpir own teapots. Aud today, all the really beautiful designs on the market that -are eagerly sought after, are just replicas of those product ed by those early manufacturers nearly twe centuries ago.

There is one large shop in Christchurch that is showing the very latest, which is as well the very earliest, in teapot design. If you want a teapot — and they tell me that teapots are much, sought after as gifts combining the utilitarian with the artistic—your head will swim with the beauty of them. A milk jug is an expressionnless piece of chiua; even a cup and saucer lacks definite appeal; but a teapot—ah, there is expression for you! A teapot may b>; perky or depressed, cheery or with a spout that emphasises the fact'that it has its way to make in the world, and intends to get there. Believe me, a teapot spout may hint at a quite pugnacious teapot disposition. Then there is the meek teapot and the cosy crumpet and buttered toast teapot. Choose carefully when you go shopping.. And talking of spouts, it is worthy of notice that through all the ages there has boon only one radical alteration in the design of the teapot. That, too, is quite modern. The cube teapot has no spout. However, it is a purely utilitarian article, very handy it is true, and you can't better it for picnics and the like. But —when is n teapot not a teapot? Answer: When it is a cube.

Have you seen a Mason teapot, minuet pattern, Romney shape? Ah! here is a teapot for you. Roses and" posies on deep, rich cream. It suggests rather aristocratic tea cakes, and perhaps sandwiches, water-like and deli-, cate. Yet it is in almost every detail exactly the teapot that was made by the same firm in the days when itomney was a name to conjure with and the varnish of his fame was as new as, ■his pictures. Here is another teapot that perhaps will take your fancy. Exactly! Your opinion concurs with that of the Chinese ladies of goodness alone knows how many centuries ago. This piece of Booth'China is a repiica of the Bristol porcelain design, which ; n itself was an exact copy of the first teapot introduced from the Celestial Kingdom into Great Britain. It <s known as the exotic bird pattern and is almost flamboyant in "its beauty. That is the old fish-scale-bluc, very much prized centuries ago. Commercialisation has never changed the teapot. Here is the gorgeous silver lustre, with iridescent effect, and with elaborate spout, and handle all reproduced to the last detail to-day. Th.i present age canaot rival :-hn deigns of the' old makers. And, by the way, if you have' an old, a really old silver lustre teapot, it is worth something from a collector's point of view. The old firms, familiar names two centuries ago, ar« still at work. .Here is the fan-shaped teapot of the present dav. an exact reproduction of the early Chinese shape and with Chinese decorations. And hero is the Wedgwood, and the Gadroon shape of Spode's early 1.-.ys. Here is the Bloor Derby. An '•ndcaring habit that. The teapot or ti\e' day "was named after the man in charge of the works at the time'when it was first evolved. So "Bloor" is perpetuated. Lastly, for, of course, we must come down to facts—there are the old brown teapots, but they are not much sought after nowadays. It is the age of colour, and of beauty in design. Occasionally a brown teapot is asked for, but dozens of the charming flower-decked designs arc sold to one of the homely brown. Then there is the pyrcx—you can watch your tea brewing, and, of course the silver. Urns are definitely out! There is no need for the family urn at the breakfast table, to-day. A teapot for two, or at the most, four, will suffice.

Ah! Teapots are a fascinating study,