English Tea Store Tea Header

Tea Blog

Official Blog of the English Tea Store


The World’s Most Valuable Teapots

How much would you pay for a teapot? A hundred dollars? A thousand? How about $2 million? Yes, there is a teapot that sold at auction for $2 million, making it one of the most valuable teapots in the world. Want to know more? Read on.

The $2 Million Dollar Teapot

The $2 Million dollar teapot made of purple clay
The $2 Million dollar teapot made of purple clay

Anyone who knows teapots will not be surprised to learn that this pricey teapot is a Yixing zisha teapot. It was made in 1948 of purple clay (the rarest kind) from the Yixing area of China by the master ceramicist Gu Jingzhou. The sale was at an auction in Beijing. The teapot is a typical squat shape with a handle and a spout that both seem seamless with the teapot’s body. As is typical for this type of teapot, it is adorned with notable calligraphic engravings by modern master Wu Hufan and bamboo carvings by painter Jiang Handing.

The £69,000 Teapot

The conjoining of history and tea into one teapot got the bidders excited at an auction in the UK. The teapot dates from around 1765 and has a message that makes it relevant even today. The winning bidder was an American, who fended off two London bidders in a hot and heavy contest where the bids were raised by $1,000 at a time. It is a rare teapot, and no similar ones were expected to come up at auction ever.

Two sides of a valuable and historic teapot
Two sides of a valuable and historic teapot

The Most Valuable Teapot Collection

The largest collection of teapots in private hands is said to be that of Maurice Cooper in Australia. He has stated that there are 4,000 teapots in the collection in total and about 3,000 teapots on display in his shop ‘By-gone Beautys’ in Leura in the Blue Mountains. An amazing collection amassed over 38 years, it includes a car-shaped teapot and a Humpty Dumpty teapot along with such high-value beauties as a set made in 1900 (commissioned by the emperor of Japan — 30 sets were made, and then the mold was destroyed) and that a Dutch owner of a similar set sold at Christies in 1998 for $21,000. Cooper says, though, that the value of the teapots is immaterial since he plans never to sell them.

Maurice Cooper with some of his collection of 4,000 teapots
Maurice Cooper with some of his collection of 4,000 teapots

The $2.18 Million Rare “Melon” Teapots

At first glance, these teapots look like they are ready to be transformed by a fairy godmother into coaches to take Cinderella to the Prince’s Ball. They certainly commanded a royal price at an auction in mid 2011. The teapots are marked with the distinctive iron-red seal of the Imperial Qianlong dynasty, were made in the 19th century, and were sold by a Scottish family at the Bonhams Fin Chinese Art sale in Glasgow, Scotland. Needless to say, jaws dropped when the hammer went down on that price.

Ready to be turned into Cinderella coaches!
Ready to be turned into Cinderella coaches!

Go digging in your attic, your basement, that old box of stuff the executor of Aunt Mable’s will sent you years ago, etc., and you might find another of the world’s most valuable teapots. Happy hunting!

© Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog, 2009-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this article’s author and/or the blog’s owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.



5 responses to “The World’s Most Valuable Teapots”

  1. […] The World’s Most Valuable Teapots […]

  2. […] The World’s Most Valuable Teapots, By A.C. Cargill […]

  3. […] See also: Teapots, Teapots and More Teapots What to Do with Broken Teapots Can You Ever Have Enough Teapots? Farewell and Goodbye, Dear Chatsford Teapot! “Stunt Double” Teapots The World’s Most Valuable Teapots […]

  4. […] and whatever else you can think of. Teapots are no exception. One difference, though, is that the teapot collectors often use those teapots, not just let them sit around. A peach-design Yixing teapot with brocade […]

  5. […] background-position: 50% 0px ; background-color:#222222; background-repeat : no-repeat; } englishtea.us – Today, 8:49 […]

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s

Website Powered by WordPress.com.

%d bloggers like this: