Tea cups, teapots, and lovely tea things

I thought I'd share at least part of my tea cup and teapot collection. Most are in my dining area, some are on shelves in my bedroom and those I actually use a lot are in the long, narrow drawer of my breakfront...also called a hutch (not shown). They are the teacups I actually use for myself, my family and others who would visit. I got the idea of storing them in the long, narrow drawer of the hutch when I saw it done in a magazine.

Like so many collections, mine started with one tea cup a friend gave me and then a teapot which was a birthday gift from my daughter. It was when we inherited my mother-in-law's beautiful corner china cabinet that I had a place to display many of the items. I would purchase any tea cups or teapots I liked when I first began collecting. Since then, I narrowed them to certain styles and colors to display.

Most of my collection were in the $1.00 to $3.00 range (yes, even the teapots). My most expensive items were gifts from loved ones and there are just a couple which I paid $10.00 to $15.00 for at antique stores, especially when I was looking for a particular style. That is still the price I see at most antique stores in the area, with prices going much higher for rarer tea cups. That's why I look for them at Goodwill, garage sales and thrift stores. :)


This is the top and bottom view of the inside of my china cabinet. This camera doesn't pick up the sparkle of the china and the colors are muted but they are still pretty. The teapot on the top shelf (top picture) is the one my daughter gave me which started my collection. It is still my favorite. The tea cup at the lower right hand corner of the bottom picture is the one my friend gave me about fourteen years ago, starting my tea cup collection.

This is the other corner of my dining room area. The tea cups shown here all have mums on them, in various shades of purple and lilac...perfect for this area. The beautiful dried wildflower arrangement came from Goodwill, I think it was $1.00. The green bowl shown is actually silver with a green interior, another Goodwill find. The silver set is one I mentioned another time, purchased for $25.00 from an antique mall because it was slightly tarnished (it cleaned up just fine).

Some day I'll share some of my other tea cups, those I use quite often and those displayed on shelves in my bedroom.