Tearooms and Teapots and Following Dreams
Yesterday I told you about the Conley family’s passion for animals. A half hour away in Trenton, Tennessee, Kelly, the hostess of the Tea Time: A British Touch tearoom, has a passion for English tea.
Our daughter, grandchildren, Ray, and I headed there after leaving the safari park. I’m serious when I say that Kelly has a passion for the English tea experience. She orders everything on the menu—from scones to biscuits to tea—from England so that her American guests can experience a true English tea. After homeschooling their children, Kelly and her husband Bob . . .
. . . moved to Trenton from Virginia and purchased this beautiful home on College Street.
In its hallway is this pretty curved staircase, . . .
. . . and take a look at this hand-carved mantle in the dining room.
Kelly has decorated the tearoom with English china and teapots.
Like many tearooms, a photograph of Queen Elizabeth hangs on the wall. Kelly also gives guests an opportunity for this fun photo op.
The population of Trenton, Tennessee, is about 4,200 people.
Surprisingly, this little town is not only home to an English tearoom, it is also home to the Trenton Teapot Museum with its exquisite collection of teapots. The city of Trenton celebrates its teapot heritage with an annual Teapot Festival each May. The Trenton Teapot Museum has no ordinary teapots, but rather an extensive collection of veilleuse théières (pronounced vay-uhz tay-airs). You may wonder, as I did, what that means. Veilleuse is French for “night light” and théière means “teapot.”
The Trenton municipal building is the museum’s home. When city officials meet for business, they see hundreds of teapots behind glass on either side.
Trenton native Dr. Fredrick C. Freed grew up to become a professor of gynecology at New York University.
A patient who thought a great deal of the doctor was once traveling in Europe. While there, she sought out a special gift for him. She decided to purchase a veilleuse théière.Â
Parents and nurses originally used veilleuse théières in nurseries and sickrooms. They placed oil in the veilleuse and lighted it.
The oil provided a night light and also warmed herb tea inside the théière.
A veilleuse théière was an appropriate gift for Dr. Freed because the tea’s purpose was medicinal. Nurseries and sickrooms often had an additional veilleuse used to warm food or drink.
Dr. Freed became enamored with veilleuse théières and became a serious collector of ones made in the 1800s when ceramists in France began producing them with elaborate decorations.
Dr. Freed scoured European antique stores to find them.
His collection grew to over 500, including at least two which once belonged to Napoleon.
Once when Dr. Freed visited an antique store in search of one for his collection, the antique dealer told him that he didn’t have any because some crazy American was buying them all. That “crazy American” was Dr. Freed.
Dr. Freed eventually decided to donate his collection to his hometown.
One of Dr. Freed’s stipulations was that visitors always be able to view the teapots without paying admission. We arrived at the museum late in the day.
An employee of the police department in another part of the municipal building told us to go on in. We had the museum all to ourselves.
Dr. Freed, the Conley family, and Kelly of the Tea Time: A British Touch tearoom found different ways to follow their dreams. What are your children’s dreams? Homeschooling is a great way to give them a launch pad for pursuing them.
Dr. Freed collected objects made to give off fragrant aromas. Jesus offered Himself as a fragrant aroma to God.
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children;
and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you
and gave Himself up for us,
an offering and a sacrifice to GodÂ
as a fragrant aroma.
Ephesians 5:1
