Thursday 2 June 2011

Austrian Teapot

I discovered this pot house on a recent visit to Austria. We actually flew to Zurich and so I was expecting to find a number of teapots in Switzerland but we only stayed there overnight so really there wasn't much opportunity to explore. We discovered the pot below in one of the many beautifull valleys just over the Swiss border in Austria. It dates back to around 1810 and was manufactured in Vienna (by a company set up by an Scottish entrepreneur in 1784) and was well known for their elaboratey decorated and delicate looking handles and spouts. The drawback to this design was that the living quarters were quite small (a major drawback to the large Austrian families at the time) but the tea volume was vast. These pots became the forerunners of modern cafes as they produced/held more tea than any family would need and so travellers/villagers would be able to drink (at a price) the excess beverage.
Many pots of this time were personalised and this one had the following engraved over the door:
"Welcome here to all Malcolmtents for this Be a Holmes for all".
Cryptic, but this is a translation from the old Austrian text!


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