Vintage teapot and cosy

What’s “vintage” to you…….if you’re real young something that’s ten years old might seem like vintage to you……if your older….it might take something that’s fifty or a hundred years old to be considered a vintage item. Compose an interesting picture with whatever you choose 

 Note: This is a replica, not the real thing.


When my late paternal Grandma left China for Borneo 100  years ago, she brought two things. A

 This cosy belongs to my friend Francis Chen.

Chinese tea pot with a paper mache cosy. She also brought a slave,. This slave was given to her by her parents to serve her in any way she liked. This was an era when the paternalistic Chinese society when males were superior to the useless girl.Grandma returned to China before the World War two.

When I visited my Grandpa, He always had his tea pot filled with black Chinese tea. It was kept warm by the paper mache. Grandpa married a second wife, so these items went to her.

That pot was very a valuable antique. When Grandpa was still alive, an antique dealer came round to houses of old people to scour for old things. He offered a good price for the tea pot, and the paper mache. The latter, the antique dealer had never seen. Grandpa refused to sell, no matter how good the offer was.

He told us, it was the only family heirloom that was worth anything. We teased him that he was an old romantic who could not give up the tea pot because it held so much memories for my late grandma.

My  grandma  turned 100. She doesn't use the pot anymore. No, it is too precious to use, just in case someone breaks it. She will talk about it though. The only precious thing she had inherited.

Whilst in Singapore,  I chanced upon this Chinese tea pot Tow Guan pottery at Jalan Bahar next to NTU. I was so excited, it was an exact replica of Grandma's tea pot. It  is the nearest I could get that was Grandma's. I bought three. Two for my older sisters and one for myself.

I emailed Rose and Elizabeth. Elizabeth has the same sentiments as me. She was delighted to have it. But Rose, she wanted only the real McCoy. I told her she might have to fight over that antique tea pot.