Protect What You Cherish: 8,500 Teapots, 1 Perfect Cuppa

Whether yours is a builder's brew or sipped from fine china (pinkies out!), the perfect cup of tea is a very British obsession - but Keith Blayze and his wife Sue take the biscuit. Having started collecting in 1983 and amassing 3500 teapots in the first 20 years, they upped spouts and moved to Yalding in Kent for more space, opening a museum - and cafe, of course - known as Teapot Island. There, the collection grew to 8,500 teapots, including one-offs, historical treasures, and cheeky novelty designs, and became such a tourist attraction that even King Charles and Camilla stopped by for a visit - and left with a teapot of their own for the Palace!

The couple have retired from running the now closed Teapot Island and the majority of their teapots have started a new life with another avid collector - but first, the Blayzes invited us to look under the lid of their cherished collection.

How did your collection begin?

We bought a house with a display cabinet in the kitchen, and we decided we didn't want to just put pots and pans or tins of beans in there, we wanted something special. Well, my wife's nanny came round to see us and said, ‘I've got just the thing to go in there’. It was a special teapot that was bought for her when she got married in her twenties, that she used to get out Christmas, make tea, and put it back in a cupboard. Then my wife’s aunt came around, and it was the same thing, another teapot! That's what started us off.

What do you most love about collecting?

The hunt! We used to queue up at antique fairs, and looked everywhere we went, brick-a-brac, jumble sales, carboot sales even, because you just don't know what you're gonna find. Once, after work - I was a mechanic in my own garage - we packed up at six o'clock, drove all the way down to Devon, picked up some teapots, and drove all the way back for work the next day. Such was our passion for teapots.

What makes a teapot a collector’s item?

We only buy unusually shaped ones, or unusual designs. And we don't buy house teapots now, because one house looks very similar to another house! Not that long ago I bought a Cleopatra teapot, and I was sure that we didn't already have it - but when I came back home, I found that we did… but then, I'm getting on a little bit now!

How did King Charles and Camilla come to visit Teapot Island?

They came to see us all after there’d been a flood in the Village; we were one of the businesses invited to go into the village hall to meet them. But then their aides came running in and said, ‘could you tell me where Mr and Mrs Blazye are?’ I thought we'd done something wrong! But they asked, ‘Can they come to Teapot Island?’ 

They went around the museum, and asked lots of questions like, ‘Which one started you collecting, and which is the oldest?’ Then, as they came out, Camilla bought a teapot in the shape of a camel, and Charles said, ‘why did you want that one?’ And she answered, ‘It’s a camel for Camilla!’ Then Charles said, ‘I hope you bartered on the price!’ It was, I think, £13.50, and I’d said that she could have it as a gift - but Camilla said, ‘if I can't pay, I cannot have!’

Which teapots would you never part with?

Once we went to an antique fair and found a teapot which we didn't have, and we bought it, but we could tell it had the wrong lid. From the markings, we knew who’d made it - and we knew him quite well, so we phoned him up and told him we’d found this teapot. We described it, and explained that it had the wrong lid - and he said ‘I know, because I still got the lid. I've kept the lid, because I liked it, but I didn't like the teapot!’ He'd only ever made one, and a few years later, we actually went to see him in Cornwall, and he gave us the lid to go on top of the teapot. That would definitely be one of them.

My favorite is a Harley Davidson one, and my wife's is a Princess Diana teapot. There was a pair of teapots that, when we finally found them, my wife was nearly in tears to actually have these two teapots, after all these years and however many miles we've walked looking around to find them. One is called Mr House and the other is Mrs House. We've got them in our private collection, and they'll always be with us. We will always have teapots in our house - we’re known as Mr. And Mrs. Teapot!