Wait Collection
John and Elizabeth Wait display of teapots
30sRoom
1830s room setting
wait teapots
Worcester tea service with Minton and Staffordshire  teapots

Wait Collection

For over three hundred years the cup of tea has been a vital part of the British way of life.  

The John and Elizabeth Wait display of teapots tells the story of tea drinking from the days when the precious leaf was brewed in a dainty porcelain teapot using water kept hot in a tea urn to today’s teabag and electric kettle.  

There are teapots great and small, old and new, some beautiful, some grotesque. Indeed some are not even recognizable as teapots at first sight.  

Over three hundred and fifty domestic, novelty and craft teapots are displayed together with tea ephemera in a series of themed cabinets and period room settings dating from 1800 to 1939.  

This is one of only a few galleries in Britain where you can view the historical development of our national pride and joy – the teapot.