Teapot Tuesday

Sticky Fingers

We glued my miniature furniture back together

Sticky fingers remain

Why miniature when no one will squeeze into such a tiny seat?

Sticky fingers

Why glue?

Sticky fingers

Thus we are held in miniature, secured with bondage of a chemical intractable nature

Sticky fingers

The miniatures restored, seats for miniature animals taking miniature tea

Sticky fingers

Only a lover of long would submit to

Sticky fingers

for such as these

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Teapot Tuesday

A miniature tea set from the Victoria & Albert Museum:

on miniature table.

Teapot Tuesday

The travelling teapot:

We lived in a hotel for 8 weeks when we first moved to Port Dickson.  I loathe tea made in a cup with a jiggly bag because it is never strong enough and it just doesn't taste quite right.  We found this teapot in a local shop for MR 2.00 - (Malaysian ringgit) which is about 30p.  Most of the time it lives in the cupboard, coming out with the suitcases. 

We don't take it everywhere, only when we plan to stay in a hotel for more than three or four nights.  It is in use as I am posting this!

And on the subject of tea - its closely related cousin breakfast is dear to my heart.  One of the joys of hotel breakfasts is the range on offer, and for us poor lost souls, the abundance of p*rk - quickly transferred from the plate to the waistline.

and

I hope you enjoy your toast and muesli this morning.

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Teapot Tuesday

Tea for One

 Tea for two may be divine

            ... but sometimes
Tea for one is simply sublime

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Teapot Tuesday

We are particularly blessed today as the Supreme Council for Public Holidays has decided that we all need to get more exercise and a Sport Day has been declared.  (I am not one to talk but the local population has an obesity rate of about 85% and diabetes problems to match.) 

It is mere chance that this year, the inaugural Sport Day coincides with St Valentine's Day. 

In true glutton-fashion, we commenced our healthy-living day with breakfast of freshly squeezed grapefruit juice, wholemeal toast, tomatoes, eggs and gammon steak (imported from London last year).

Here is the teapot, the one I use all the time:

with the red teapot from Primus at Christmas, in the background.  This teapot has a felted metal lid which keeps the tea nice and hot.  It also has a removable basket which I sometimes fill with chai spices to add piquancy to my tea, and it pours brilliantly without dripping.  This is the four-cup version.  We like the teapot so much we also have a six-cup one for when the family is here.

Breakfast was slightly delayed while my seat-warmer was removed:

Here you can see our new kitchen table in all its glory:

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Teapot Tuesday - Aladdin's Lamp

Some nice husbands bring home flowers for their wives. 

Most of our working lives together, I worked in or near, a city centre while Marius worked in the wastelands of oil-refinery land.  He was rarely in a position to bring home anything in the way of treats or surprises.   However, when we lived in Kuala Lumpur, Marius worked in the Petronas Towers, above a swanky shopping centre known as Suria KLCC.  He travelled constantly during those years, so his visits to the office were irregular and usually short.  One day, he brought this home for me, on a whim:

teapot by Bodum

We'd admired it on one of our shopping trips and decided against buying it because - well how many teapots do you really need? 

This day, the department store was having a Shopping Spectacular - a Promosi Hebat! and Marius must have had a few minutes of spare time over lunch.

The teapot has a nice removable basket which is ideal for loose tea or extra herbs.  I use it when I make mint tea.  The handle stays cool, the tea stays hot, and the spout pours smoothly without dripping.

I haven't tried rubbing it to make a wish - but you are welcome to experiment and let me know what the genie brings you - good luck, I hope.

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Teapot Tuesday

Red Spot II, Wallisy Kandinsky

The Celestial Tea Party

All the young gods were there –

bring a plate the invitation read

So we did:  figs and olives,

and those little honey cakes Artemis loves

finely curled fish cucumbers and dianthus crystal sweets

What we didn’t dream of was Dionysius and his ‘tea’

And after the party, we’ve been picking  crockery from the sky

for years

installation at the V & A

In response to Tess at The Mag.  Many others can be found dining here.

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Teapot Tuesday

What do you do with old silver-plate teapots and cutlery?

I bought this from 'Mr Chimes' at the Arts Centre Sunday Markets, in about 2005 or so.  The last few times I visited the markets, he wasn't there, but a quick check of the Sunday Markets website now shows  he is still there (hooray!).

The teapot hangs in the doorway between our kitchen and laundry, and annoys everybody who doesn't live here: 'too bad' I say.

The chimes are fashioned from old forks and spoons, with glass embellishments.

Cultures that see spirits and ghosts in every dark corner tend to favour chimes and bells to keep these ghoulies at bay.  I am not sure if we have any bad spirits here but I do love my chimes.

Teapot Tuesday

Now for a little philosophy.

In 1952, the English philosopher Bertrand Russell, wrote a paper entitled 'Is there a God?' in which he argued that the burden of proof of an unverifiable statement remained with the person making the claim, rather than on an observer attempting to prove the statement's falsehood.  The analogy he used was that of a teapot, orbiting the Sun between Earth and Mars.  Simply put, he argued that just because an observer could not prove the teapot didn't exist, that did not mean it did exist.

the Russellian solar system, with orbiting teapot,
courtesy of Prima

Personally, I believe Bertrand Russell was an entertaining and challenging writer and thinker.  I do not endorse his views on all subjects, nor do I seek to force them on others.

My daughter Prima is fascinated by Russell, and in homage to his paper, she created a teapot in his honour.

And because we are all flawed beings, we failed to spell his name correctly:

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Teapot Tuesday

Melbourne Teapots today.  The first is a magnificent hand-built teapot that my daughter Prima (of the long flowing locks) created at school.  It holds enough tea for 8 good mug-fuls, pours surprisingly well, and I think should be the star of its own animation-adventure.  This teapot inhabits a special universe of clear water and rolling tea plantations:

As promised last week, here is the teapot that my son Primus, of the saturnine glances, gave me for Christmas, in all its cheery glory - and yes, it pours as a teapot should:  drip-less and smoothly.

ps -- I am flying back to exile --  see you soon  xx

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Teapot Tuesday

from the Victoria & Albert's collection:

(I received a lovely red teapot for Christmas from Primus, but I haven't a photo of it with me -- next time!)

Teapot Tuesday

Snapped out the car window on Bridge Road. 

No guesses about the pouring quality of the spout!

Teapot Tuesday

More Chinese Teapots

We have two teapots that are of a similar style.  They are probably about 80-100 years old and well used.  They are made of bronze, to take the high temperatures, and tinned (or maybe silvered?) to improve the flavour.  We have not been able to find any information about these unusual  and possibly unique teapots, fitted with their own chimneys and charcoal burners to keep the tea hot.

They are not particularly beautiful; they are interesting:

You can see the chamber on the front where the nugget of coal would be placed.  The handle is wound with bamboo to protect the handle from heat.

You can see the chimney and the open ring lid which would cover the tea but leave the chimney open.  The interior has calcium deposits and many signs of use.   The teapot has a surprising capacity of 350 ml, given it is only 8 cm high (about 3 inches).  It is also quite heavy, roughly 1 kg.

The second, larger pot is similar in structure to the first.

This one stands 10 cm to the shoulder and has a capacity of 675 ml.  It is really heavy, especially when full.

Note the chimney and the open ring top, identical to the lid of the smaller teapot.

In order to give you the capacity of the teapots, I filled them with water and then poured the contents into a measuring cup.  One thing I loathe in a teapot, is the inability to pour smoothly, to have a dripping spout and a splashy nature.  These two teapots poured like gems, giving a little twist to the stream as it emerged from the spout.  Not a single drip, not a splash.

If metal workers a hundred years ago could make a perfect spout, why is it not possible to buy a new teapot with a drip-less spout?

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Teapot Tuesday

Is it possible to have too many teapots?  There is always the V & A to help me look sane ...

Yixing clay teapots in the V & A Museum

According to wiki-wisdom, Yixing clay is perfect for teaware due to its sandy  and highly cohesive nature, allowing for an unglazed surface.  The porous nature of the surface means that tea is absorbed into the pot, adding to the complexity of flavours and making Yixing teapots highly prized, especially old ones.

The clay has been extracted in the Jiangsu province since at least the Song dynasty, one thousand years ago.  Some of the old sources of the clay are worked out, making new teapots scarce and expensive.  I understand that it is no longer possible to export old teapots from China as belatedly, the government has decided to preserve the cultural history of this ancient and complex land.

Teapots come in a variety of shapes and sizes, although most are smaller than Western style teapots. Some are highly decorated and formal, while others reflect popular themes and whimsical characters.

I like miniature teasets which is why I bought this one - teapot lid on teapot:

This one is in the form of a lotus root.  Lotus flowers are important in Buddhist iconography:

Symbols representing good luck, wisdom and wealth are common in all sorts of Chinese artefacts, fabrics and furniture.  Wise men and Bodhavistas (holy beings who have attained enlightenment but remain amongst the living to assist them on their paths) are also common images.  This teapot cradles one of the Wise Men - Fu Lu Shou - who is supposed to bring wealth and propserity to the owner.

I suspect there would have been a set of three teapots originally, each representing one of the Fu Lu Shou attributes (Good Fortune, Prosperity and Longevity).  He is holding a golden ingot or yuan bao, to encourage wealth or good fortune.  Some representations of the Fu Lu Shou combine the three attributes of the Wise Men into one figure.

This little piggy is my favourite:

The pig is associated with fertility and virility in the twelve-year Chinese Zodiac.  Possibly this chap was one of a set of twelve, or may have been the property of a person born in the 'Year of the Pig'.  I love his fat cheeks and devil-may-care attitude.


Ready  for a cuppa?

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Teapot Tuesday

For a few happy years I worked part-time and finished in time to walk the children home from school.  We had a lovely playroom with views out over the trees of the neighbouring gardens and it was there we would have 'afternoon tea'.

We always used this tea set with Peter Rabbit.  Prima had the Bunnykins tea cup while Primus used the Paddington Bear one.  As you can see, they are still with me in the china cabinet, although I can't remember the last time they were used (note to self, fix this!).   The Basil Brush tea towel is standing in for my Paddinton Bear tin tray, which we always served tea on.

We had other guests from time to time but they all needed assistance with their tea and biscuits:  Nod, the handmade bear given by our Cheshire neighbours; Mersey and Telford who came from the Merrythought bear emporium at Ironbridge, Reggie from the Rotating Equipment Group, PC Blue Plod who was an emergency bear from the Westmead Children's Hospital; and a selection of Miss Bears and Master Bears who came from Marius' mum - Miss Practise, Miss Fleur, the Reverend (who was made from red paisely - think about it) and Master Birch, who had a wood-patterned waistcoat.

I wish I could show you these bear heroes but they are dispersed to various grandparent's back rooms, storage containers and cupboards.  Rest assured, none of them have been thrown out.  Oh dear, it now occurs to me I could start a new series of Thursday Bears ....  no, no.

Tea parties were always a highlight and only possible on days when there was no band rehearsal, football practice, piano lessons, violin or French horn lessons.  My memory of them always has the sun streaming in the high west windows on the dancing dust motes.

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Teapot Tuesday

Is it possible to have too many teapots?

old teapots never die, they slip away to the V & A

A Teapot is a Palace

A teapot is a palace where djinns and angels dwell

where wings of chamelia sinensis charm

the feathers out of ladies’ hats:

in sunny parlours the polished silver

beeswaxed wood and worn upholstery

(antimacassared for the Vicar)

gather round to pay respects at 3 o’clock

on Tuesdays

Smoke-filled dens of mahjongg tiles

where jade men with heavy bets watch

steam rising over eggshell cups

while fortunes and lives are lost and won

on gaming Tuesdays

Tuan tuan squat on their heels

before turning west to pray

taking their muddy  teh tarikh –

tea pulled through time like the

laterite Selangor roads to

Tuesday afternoon

Corduroy hills have aching backs

bend, pluck, toss and heave

bend again in endless row

No angels these who taste the crop

each Tuesday with their pay

But still, a teapot is a palace

corduroy hills in the Cameron Highlands, Malaysia

Also linked to Magpie Tales Mag 94, where there are plenty more tea drinkers.
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