The Teapot Collector

What?

Yes, I collect teapots.

I actually feel a little weird admitting that. I don’t know why. I’m not sure why.

I didn’t start out with the idea of collecting teapots. I mean, I didn’t wake up one morning and say to myself, “Hmmm … that wall looks empty. What can I do that will involve building shelves, constant cleaning and polishing, require a never ending search, and – for the first time in my life – a surprising lust for my neighbor’s possessions?”

And then I thought, “I know. I’ll collect teapots! THAT will do it!”

Yeah. Uh-huh. Right.

Actually, I started collecting teapots because I didn’t have one.

Christmas was coming, you see, and people kept asking me what I would like Santa to bring me. This was a problem. If I wanted something, normally I’d simply go out and get it. But in a coffee shop I had seen a teapot shaped like a leprechaun (no kidding), and it was for sale for only nine bucks. I didn’t really WANT the thing, but the image of it stayed with me.

You ever have something like that?

So – you know what’s coming, don’t you? When someone asked what I wanted for Christmas, I’d say, “a teapot.” I figured that nine bucks was a cheap gift, and I really didn’t have a teapot.

What DIDN’T occur to me was that I had really cheap friends. That year I got twelve teapots for Christmas.

Wow. A collection.

I now have well over a hundred teapots. Some of them I even like.

This is from my "Been somewhere, done something" collection. The one in the back is from a 1924 street fair. In front of that is a Masonic teapot. In front of that is an Art Deco teapot that belonged to a wealthy woman, I bought it from her estate. Partially seen is a Sorority teapot.

This is part of my "people" teapots, because they, uh, look like people.

This is part of my international collection. In back, an American "Hall" teapot (Expensive). In front of that are Russian, English, and Italian teapots.

(Do I have you hooked yet?)

This is part of my "What was going through my mind when I bought this thing?" collection. I have boxes of these - all ... unusual.

In a moment of complete insanity I paid two hundred dollars for this one. It's beautiful, and lives on the top of a high shelf. Way up there. W-a-a-a-a-y up there.

I have a handful of metal teapots. The silver ones are almost always tarnished. I appreciate teapots that aren't silver.

These are my favorite teapots (as a collection.) They are English, with raised dots and patterns. All the same and all different. I purposely didn't dust these before taking the picture. (Multiply this by a hundred.)

Oh. Yeah. There's the leprechaun teapot. Of course I went back and got it. You knew I would. It only cost nine bucks.

JB

And how was your day?