Saturday, January 26, 2013

Teacups

This is a brief post between a very enjoyable catch up with Elaine from Random Jottings (always a treat) and having people round for a very slightly late Burns night this evening but I got some new cups this week and feel the need to share.
For years I meant to gather a collection, first of old coronation mugs when they could still be picked up for about a pound, and generally of tea cups, saucers, and ideally a sandwich plate as well. For years I did nothing about it at all in which time the price of royal memorabilia crept up past the point of practicality (between five and ten pounds when I see them now) and I still couldn't make up my mind about a tea set. The first conundrum was whether to have something that matched, the issue being that an attractive tea set is pricey balanced against how often I'm likely to use it, an unattractive one is both pricey and pointless - but there are plenty of them out there.

My second dilemma was whether to hunt out good quality china - beautiful cups and saucers from very respectable makers can still be picked up as odds for about ten to fifteen pounds - and some of them are lovely, almost to lovely to use, quite impossible to replace if you get very fond of one, and probably to extravagant for my needs, but there is a third way and late last autumn I decided to finally follow it.

Charity shops have proved a dead loss for this but I've found a couple of antique stalls where for a very modest sum (about four pounds for a trio, and yes I've been told that's robbery compared to car boot sales and auctions, but it saves me no end of bother and I'm quite happy to pay it) you can get a cup, saucer, and plate in perfectly acceptable bone china if nothing else. These are the sets that have quite obviously been used a lot and probably originally came from Woolworths or similar. My favourite so far features a hunting scene, I wouldn't have given house room to the whole tea set but I love this one example; I firmly believe that altogether this mismatched collection looks great...

They haven't had a proper airing yet - I need to organise a tea party sometime soon - and truthfully I really don't have the space for collecting more junk, but these cups have a real charm. They have so obviously seen life - I can only imagine the amount of gossip shared over them - that I find them hard to resist. I suspect that in another few years they will cost more than I want to pay (I'm not pretending that they're an investment) but already I've seen prettily boxed versions of much the same thing in Liberty's for an eye-watering amount (also saucers with lustre ware cups on them that reflect the pattern but have a contemporary spin and are the kind of idea I kick myself for not having first and thus making a mini fortune out of) so I'm buying whilst I can.        

Quite likely I'll get rid of them all one day in a fit of streamlining but meanwhile I imagine generations of women before me sitting down for tea with friends, or on their own with the latest Georgette Heyer, or perhaps even entertaining a vicar (I do hope that at least one of these cups has entertained a vicar...) and think I must entertain more. 

18 comments:

  1. I like the mismatch of some things, and tea cups are one of them. Other things I like to match for some strange reason.

    I am lucky enough to have some coronation mugs but not sure of their value.

    I hope you have many happy tea parties with them, and cut me a piece of virtual cake.

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    1. I think it works with tea cups because tea can be fairly informal. If the glass ware is nice I don't mind mismatched glasses either, but I do covet a decent dinner service. Just as well I don't really have a dinner party lifestyle. I'll bake you a whole virtual cake!

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  2. I agree - a mismatch in teacups is a beautiful thing! Good luck with your collecting. Perhaps a tiered cake stand to go with them?

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  3. I love your idea and your collection Hayley! There's nothing more fun that having a weather eye out for something you're trying to collect. I know the feeling of thinking you should be collecting something for years and then realising the stuff has gone out of your price range. I wish I'd collected vintage table linen years ago when you could pick up beautiful pieces for almost nothing! I think these sets are still a bargain though and, as you say, if you're unlucky enough to drop one it isn't the end of the world! Have you got some lovely vintage teapots/ milk jugs/ sugar bowls as well?

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    1. I've got a pretty little Belleek sugar bowl and some nice Burleigh jugs. I would quite like a silver teapot but that might be hard to come by in my price range - I used to pick up bits and pieces of silver at antique fairs but that's gone up a lot as well - even the battered old stuff I went for. I've yet to see a vintage teapot I like the look of so it's just as well my idea of afternoon tea is more farmhouse than drawing room.

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  4. We are clearly kindred spirits. I love china and do have a couple of really beautiful tea sets but I still love buying triples. I'm envious that you've found somewhere to pick them up for as little as four pounds; I'm paying around eight. But then I am buying mostly in Stratford so I suppose you have to add the tourist premium. What I do love but have great difficulty finding, are small china teapots. Friends would say I have enough already, but you can never have too many teapots.

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    1. They may well be better quality than the ones I'm finding but my favourite place to try is a little market stall under the old school in Market Harborough. They do all sorts of vintage stuff including lots of costume jewellery - it's the looking out for bits that's fun.

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  5. Kindred here too - I love and collect mismatched beautiful old teacups. I'm in California and haunt thrift shops, but you'd be surprised at the very old Hammersleys and other English varieties I pick up. $10 (six pounds) would be a great bargain; I'll pay $15 for something fabulous (nine pounds) and have gone higher when insane with love. How I do treasure my beauties! When my reading group comes for tea, everybody gets their choice - striped turquoise Adderley? Pink Coalport? Golden square Hammersley? And I have wonderful sets of cake plates too, that I've picked up in odd lots for a song...Dresdens and Schumanns and Limoges and...Oh, am I babbling? Sorry! :-)

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  6. They sound lovely Diana, you're a real treasure hunter!

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  7. For my wedding showers in 1972, I received several teacups & saucers. (A single cup & saucer was considered a reasonable shower gift.) I also collected a few along the way from older relatives. I loved them all (the relatives and the teacups!)

    And for years, every ladies party I had - whether a shower (baby or wedding) or a selling forum (Tupperware et al), I used them. It was expected and I enjoyed it.

    But somehow over the years, the custom died out and I found myself divesting myself of teacups - on eBay, and finally in a yard sale. I still have four special ones (no coronation though) and will no doubt part with them eventually. They are just for display now.

    But they really were lovely to use. *sigh*

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    1. You should use them again - reinstate that custom. Considering using mine for cocktails if I can't find any tea drinkers...

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  8. Lovely post. I love collecting pretty mismatched china too. Have a complete bundle of flowery tea plates and saucers that I founhd at a carboot sale just before ny daughter's 4th birthday party. I couldn't believe my luck as they were cheaper than paper party plates. They've been used for lots of little girls since, they all like them and as they were so ccheap I don't feel precious at all about them/nervous that they may get broken. Really like your idea of imagining their past history.

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    1. What a great idea, and how much nicer than paper plates. I remember feeling so grown up when I had my first non plastic mug (it had a rocket on it and had come with an Easter egg. It was 'mine' for years)

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  9. That last saucer, the one with the house and the trees, was my grandmother's special cup -- she had just one cup and saucer like that and she used it every day. She also had an inherited Victorian tea set for special occasions, which my aunt still has, but seeing your picture there really brought her back to me. I don't know when she got it, though I remember her using it when I was a child in the seventies. Her particular cup and saucer probably saw a great deal more Hardy than Heyer.

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    1. And now I'll think of you every time I use it. There is something about a favourite cup - a drink tastes so much better out of it.

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  10. It was lovely to see you Hayley
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  11. It was lovely to see you Hayley
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