Thursday, August 6, 2009

some more tea





'a cup of tea' by the super great grace lee.

i have read some good books lately on the art of lexicography and the history of the OED. most recently i enjoyed boswell's the life of samuel johsnon. it is great stuff if you are into period biographies on literary characters (all those hordes of you).

samuel johnson quickly emerged as my favourite of the many excellent, eccentric, polymathic characters who populate the history of the OED and the literary world of 18th and 19th century britain. the below quote is from
johnson's review of hanway on tea. the review was originally published in the literary magazine 2, no. 13 (1757), and to my delight in it johnson describes himself as:

'a hardened and shameless tea-drinker who for twenty years diluted his meals with only the infusion of the fascinating plant; who with tea amused the evening, with tea solaced the midnight, and with tea welcomed the morning'.

below are nanbu tetsubin ironware teapots via keibunsha. you can see similar in english here and information on the history of nanbu tetsubin here. at end is a nice ironware teapot via dedece plus (i spied it in the most recent insideout issue).





classic ironware maker nanbu tesubin via keibunsha
covo iron teapot via dedece plus

8 comments:

  1. I NEED that red iron tea pot!!! Really I do.

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  2. Oh! So lovely to see the little gorgeous Gracie here! She is so super talented!
    Love Love
    Hello Sandwich
    xxx

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  3. Hello! I'm loving your blog, so good that olivelse has posted about you today! It's so beautiful.

    About your comment glitch, once I had to deal with something similar and it was solved by clicking on "revert widget templates to default", just below the html window in Layout > Edit Html. You could read more here. Hope it works.

    Love,
    karen

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  4. hi kylie, ebony and karen! i know, i really badly want the pink one...yet another addition to the 'when ig oback to japan' list...and gracie is so wonderful ne ebony! and thankyou for your lovely comment karen, and the tip on the comments glitch - i am a bit scared to try any total resetting in case it all disappears though!! but i will definitely try, thanks so much, i have never been able to find anything so useful on this problem as that!

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  5. Hey Bree I've just been to Baden Baden and it was TERRIFIC!!!!! It's the best shop ever! I will post about it later but I am so excited i had to tell you fast!

    Oh i'd love to have a nanbu tekki pot, my best friend has got it! she says it's needs a lot of care though. It's so beautiful anyway!

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  6. something about teapots are so beautiful. if i had to collect something, it would be teapots. haha

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  7. hi hiki and aron! so great to hear baden baden was so great - can;t wait to see the post! i know, i would love to collect them in earnest too...nambu teki first on the list:)

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  8. a real japanese tea pot is on my list of things to get when i finally go to japan.. :)

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