China Tea Cups

Another highly addicting collection to begin, china tea cups have a beauty and diversity to suit the most demanding of eyes. The finest cup is bone china that seems translucent. This quality comes from bone ask in the cup’s clay.

When you hold this cup to the light, it will be white and the light will shine through easily. By comparison a hard paste porcelain cup will be less porous and rings like a bell when struck.

No matter your choice in cups, never put something of this quality and beauty in a dishwasher. Instead, wash carefully in warm water using very mild soap and a soft cloth for drying.

Alternatively you can use a vinegar-water infusion, getting rid of any stains by carefully scrubbing with baking soda and water. Also, if you use your cups to bring whimsical smiles to guest’s faces, never put them in the microwave! Many more decorative cups have metallic etching or edges that will make the cup explode.

Many teacup collectors don’t stop with cups – they will gather matching tea implements including pots then display them together using lighting, doilies, and display cases that keep the treasures safe.

However, so doing can take up lots of living space very quickly. It’s an interesting aside that the first English teacups were more akin to a small bowl like those from China.

Saucers didn’t come into the picture until the 1700s and the round-bellied teapot around 1750. Initially the most popular of these were ones patterned after classical Greco-Roman designs.

Teacups started to become collector’s items around the 19th century, when they were also given as gifts predominantly among women. This may have been thanks in part to the popularity of afternoon tea, a concept touted by the Duchess of Bedford in the 1840s as a cure to afternoon blues.