Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2021/01/23/the-international-tempest-over-the-worlds-most-famous-teapot.html
…
8 Likes
surely this is the most famous teapot
33 Likes
That’s a fun story. I’m glad it ended up at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
I suspect, however, that this teapot is probably more famous:
[Edit: 
@smulder]
33 Likes
Was just about to post the same thing!
Also, here’s my own Utah Teapot, the very same model as the actual one:
19 Likes
“On the delivery plate of the Nutri-Matic Drink Synthesizer was a small tray, on which sat three bone china cups and saucers, a bone china jug of milk, a silver teapot full of the best tea Arthur had ever tasted, and a small printed note saying Wait.”
–Douglas Adams, The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe
This teapot is exactly how I picture the one that Adams mentions.
15 Likes
decades ahead of its time, which only became apparent later
I could be wrong, but I believe this is exactly how it works.
13 Likes
Isn’t it supposed to look like this?!
13 Likes
I get why export restrictions are placed on valuable art. But just because a piece of art with no prior connection to Canada happens to innocently end up in Canada does not seem to be a sufficient reason to prevent its movement back to the UK, where it was made.
Except … it was of huge value so local claims take priority, merely by being local. And had it made it back to UK would it then have been export-restricted or gone somewhere else abroad again?
It’s a murky world, fine art.
8 Likes
If it helps, the Canadian law seems only to delay export for a period during which the museum gets to negotiate with the owner. If they hadn’t been able to agree a price, he could still have flogged the teapot in the UK.
6 Likes
Interesting. In UK, IIRC, a price is set by officialdom somewhere, and if the museum manages to raise it, it gets to buy it. If not, then the item may well flee abroad. But typically it seems to happen AFTER the item has been acquired by an overseas buyer and the price set, but before it leaves.
(I’m sure there’s more to it than that, though.)
3 Likes
A cursory glance at the museum catalogues of any former imperial power would give a strong hint as to why none of those countries would ever suggest that an artefact’s country of origin has an automatic claim on it.
But actually I pretty much agree with the Canadian government here (at least in outline). If something has wound up in Canada and then come to have cultural value, it’s fair enough that Canada’s museums should get first refusal if it’s for sale. It would be very hard for museums to acquire anything without that sort of protectionism.
4 Likes
If we were to suggest it is the most famous teapot, and that this would be verifiable through a simultaneous survey of the entire current living population of the earth, that would be appropriate.
1 Like
I’ve heard tell that Sigmund Freud countered Russell’s assertions by suggesting small/little teapots are absolute proof of the ego. Ergo the ego is proof of the ‘little teapot’ with the caveat that it must be short and stout.
Later Lacan, post Freud, postulated that the pre-language infant in the ‘mirror phase’ developed a sense of ‘self’ upon seeing he/she/they had a handle and a spout.
8 Likes
“…It wasn’t practical enough to be mass-produced…”
Not to mention, an appropriate cozy would have been a challenge.
4 Likes
Those are some impressive graphics
2 Likes
Oblig:
15 Likes
“Oh f*, I’m a sugar-bowl”.
4 Likes
Freud’s Kettle is the poor country relation in the domain of Philosophical Kitchen Utensils, with Russell’s Teapot and Wittgenstein’s Poker hogging all the attention.
12 Likes
Well it’s good to know the kitchen of Hilbert’s Hotel has all the utensils it needs.
6 Likes
Many modern theorists hold that Dickson’s Blender has merged these earlier analogies into a unified whole.
5 Likes
