At Dover Street Market, a collection of twelve fine bone china teapots is drawing double takes from shoppers. Handmade from bright white china by Devon studio Feldspar, each piece is subtly mutated: some sprout multiple spouts, others are wrapped with hand-painted cobalt-blue handles that turn function into decoration.
‘Each of the teapots is fully functional – we often wish we had more hands to get everything done, how about tea for three in a single pour?’ joke Feldspar founders Cath and Jeremy Brown, who are known for their slightly ‘wonky’ but wonderfully tactile English fine bone china. ‘But they really are art objects you can use – bridging fine craft and avant-garde design – taking the very traditional and classic and reinventing it.’
The series, titled Surreal Teapots, was prompted by Jeremy’s long-standing fascination with the surreal and the unusual. ‘Long before he founded Feldspar,’ explains Cath, ‘he showcased a surrealist glass project at the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco. It questioned what the main function of a glass of wine should be – a vessel for the liquid or the start of human connection and conversation? It was about stopping to think, smile and not take things too seriously.’
‘Our Surreal Teapots are a continuation of this exploration,’ she continues, ‘celebrating the ritual of the distinctly British pot of tea – a drink that epitomises the simple pleasure of human connection.’
Currently displayed within a glass vitrine on Dover Street Market's ground floor, each teapot begins life as a hand-modelled prototype in Feldspar’s Dartmoor workshop, before being translated into a plaster mould for slip-casting in fine bone china. Liquid clay is poured in and left to form the walls of the vessel, the excess slip removed, and the piece refined by hand. It is then fired up to three times to achieve its characteristic strength, translucency and brilliant whiteness, before being finished with Feldspar’s signature hand-painted cobalt blue.
Teapots, it would seem, are having something of a moment. This project follows in the footsteps of Loewe’s teapot exhibition at Milan Design Week last year, where 25 artists, designers and architects were invited to reimagine the humble teapot – an object which, as Loewe observed, sits at the intersection of culture, history and ritual.
The twelve numbered edition teapots are on display and available to buy on the ground floor of Dover Street Market, London, until 2 February 2026. The designs are also available exclusively via Feldspar’s own online store as made-to-order pieces, with a six-week lead time.
