Teapot Collection Recognised By The Guinness Book of Records

Any of you here in the U.K. who have attended any special Teapot event will be more than familiar with the sight of Sue Blazye and indeed her family arriving on the scene with a beady eye for anything unusual or indeed if there is a bargain to be had teapotwise.

Few people in the world can have had more experience in this very specialist area and those who get even close to it know that recognising a bargain is a very real and hard earned skill.

It can certainly be said that Sue has worked very hard over a considerable period of time to build her teapot collection to a pretty unique quality and size.

So much so, that it has now been recognised by the most august judge of records, “The Guinness Books of Records” as the largest collection (around some 3950 teapots and rising).

Not only has this involved a fierce (some would say potty!) determination to seek out that which simply will not come out in the open to be bought, it has also necessitated the Blazye family as a whole make a big commitment to Sue’s obsession.

So much so, that they had to move home to accommodate the collection and at the same time, made teapots effectively a Blazye family way of life.

This was because the home they chose for their collection happened to be an island surrounded by the River Medway down in the beautiful Kentish countryside. Of course Sue being Sue, it was christened “Teapot Island”, and the next thing you know, it was open to visitors and entertaining them with the most fantastic display of teapots (beautifully organised behind protective laminate panels) and of course a cup of tea and more besides at their riverside café. Since then “Teapot Island” has added children’s Pottery Painting and the added attraction of seeing teapot designer Gary Seymour at work on the site.

So you can see that a collection of teapots can take you an awful long way and indeed quite change your lives (ask Sue’s husband Keith and son Luke!).

Hopefully “Teapot Island” has a little more space for Sue’s collection as she is still busily adding to it and most importantly filling in the gaps of those few elusive pots that have not yet been unearthed to complete a designers’ “back catalogue”.

We could start recounting some of her adventures and teapot missions but that would be stealing her thunder as she plans to write about them regularly in her regular “Collectors Diary” at Cardewclub.com.

Let’s at this point just celebrate with Sue as to her accomplishment with maybe a pint of Guiness. After all, its meant to be “good for you” as hopefully will be the publicity for “Teapot Island”.

(You will find “Teapot Island” at Hampstead Lane, Yalding, Maidstone, Kent, ME18 6HG.)
Tel: 81454 or contact Sue at sue.blazye@btinternet.com