The Brown Betty teapot

Years ago after a Vernacular Architecture Society outing we ended up at Vredenburg in Mowbray, Cape Town, the home of Dirk and Jean Visser. Dirk Visser, the renowned architect, was our tour leader on that day and it was a privilege to learn about vernacular architecture from such a knowledgeable and passionate man.

The Brown Betty teapot

We were sitting at the big yellowwood table enjoying tea and some of Jean Visser’s famous “siterkonfyt” (citron preserve). The tea was served in the most beautiful brown teapot that I admired for its simplicity and colour of its glaze.

Citron Preserve

The teapot only had a triangular stamp with an A, L and B in it and I started to look out for one like it at markets and antique shops.  One day I saw one in a second hand shop in Woodstock, Victoria Road and it took me three days to buy it because the shop was never open.

When I saw the shop open on my way home one day, I popped in and went straight for the teapot and looked at the stamp. There it was the A, L and B. I was informed that the shop was not open by an irritated man who asked me brusquely what I wanted. I held out the teapot to show him what I wanted. He looked at me with a confused expression on his face as though he had never seen a teapot before.

When he realised that I actually wanted to buy something in the shop he saw an opportunity to get rid of me and said R10. I realised then that the shop must have been a front for some other business.  However, with a happy heart and my teapot in hand, I went home.

Later I learned that I had bought a Brown Betty teapot that was made in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent in England at a pottery that ceased operations in the 1970's. The glaze is a Rockingham glaze that is lead free and retains heat better. The teapots are known to make the best tea in the world.

The latest Brown Betty bought on Saturday in the foreground

One day I bought a Brown Betty and I haven’t stopped yet, having grown a collection of the most beautiful teapots in the process.