Teapot Acquisition

Well, I'm so excited that I just couldn't wait to take a picture and post it. Here's our latest acquisition - a lot of teapots from an avid collector who needed to make some room, and wanted to pass on her old friends to their new homes.

I couldn't quite get them all in the photo - one was in the kitchen, getting cleaned - but I think there are 39 in total, not counting the teapot shaped purse, the framed picture of a teapot, or the lamp decorated with teapots. There are miniatures, a musical teapot, a Mickey Mouse tea-for-one, a couple of elephants, a dragon with a wizard as the lid, a Hall, a Sadler, a Villeroy and Bosch, a Mikasa... well, you get the idea. Something for everyone, I believe.

I'm just in the process of giving them a clean and then I'll be taking pictures, doing some research, and putting them all on the Timetravelers website store at TIAS - they'll be in their own department. They've all been lovingly cared for in their previous home, and I'll be sure to see that they're sent off with suitable fanfare to their new destinations.

I'm just so very pleased to have these lovely pots as part of our collection! Take a good look at the photo and see what you can find.

I've started to photograph, research, and add the teapots to the store. I issued a press release after I'd put about 10 of them into inventory (this will easily become the largest category of items we carry, until such time that I get around to entering the rest of our vast array of stock). Though not every single pot is of high value, I think there's a great variety in terms of size, and quirkiness! Not to mention that a high-priced teapot isn't necessarily what the average customer might be looking for - maybe they're just wanting one with the right colors, or one that has fish on it.

I'd say I'm about half done with the process. Luckily, I got the lighting problem with the photo studio resolved - well, kind of. After trying multiple internet vendors, plus a local lighting specialist, I was unable to find the correct replacement bulb for one of the two lamps that had blown. I contacted Hammacher Schlemmer, and their customer service department kept on trying to get me to order the bulbs from yet another online vendor - I pleaded with them that the information supplied on the bulb was not sufficient to get a suitable light. (I kept on receiving bulbs that fit the appliance, but cast the wrong color light, and was a flood and not a spot light.) Yet there was no other information supplied with which to order the bulbs - I kept going around and around, receiving bulbs, sending them back, ordering other ones, sending them back. Argh!!

Finally, the folks at Hammacher Schlemmer felt pity for my plight, and they sent me two replacement bulbs that are the correct type for the lamp. Now, they didn't come in any kind of packaging - merely bubblewrap - so I'm still completely in the dark as to what on earth I'm supposed to order from a lighting vendor!! But at least I'm able to take pictures indoors again, and the colors are true. So I'm happy. Kinda. For now.