cadogan (kuh-DUG-uhn) noun

A lidless teapot, inspired by Chinese wine pots, that is filled from the bottom.

[After William Cadogan, 1st Earl of Cadogan (1675-1726), who was said to be the first Englishman to own such a pot.]

Okay, with some of these you really need a picture--was my first thought. And voila--there are two links in the AWAD newsletter. So now I get the idea. The teapot does in fact have a lid, but the lid is not removable.

But I still need a picture. I know the teapot is filled from the bottom, but how is the bottom closed? With a cork? or a piece that screws in? How is it kept from leaking? Hmmm--research material here! But later--it would be so easy to get distracted right here.

Isn't it fun though to run across something you know nothing about and start wondering how it works or how it was invented, or where it first originated--anything like that! Giving the mind room to expand and play is delightful.

Teapots--I remember my grandmother's whistling teapot and my mother's. As loud and as shrill as the sound was, it never annoyed me. My favorite Peanuts cartoon when I was small was one in which Charlie Brown says to Lucy, "You have the patience of a boiling teakettle!" Why I remembered that one, I don't know. I even remember when it struck my funnybone. My sisters and I were all sitting in the middle bedroom on Greystone Road, so I had to be 9 or younger and we were reading Charlie Brown comics together. And we were busting a gut. I remember Mom and Dad coming to the doorway and just standing there grinning at us, and now as a mom I understand the satisfied look that was on their faces. I felt the same way watching my boys read books together one summer out under the tree. It was one of those rare moments when there wasn't some type of battle going on, and we were functioning as the family that parents always dream about.

I loved the electric teakettles that were to the British families I stayed with while on vacation such a mundane part of their world. It was like having electric lights. Who didn't have them? It never crossed their minds that Americans wouldn't have these gadgets, and I'm sure some Americans do, but I had never seen one in my life. It paints a picture in my mind like a novel now--coming in off the moors that were really quite chilly in March and plugging in the kettle and having omelets. Oh, and being taught that the sugar and milk go in the mug first. ALWAYS! :)

Want to see a picture of a cadogan?

As always, thanks for reading! :)

P.S. Okay--I did some exploring after I finished writing! Anteques-a-Day says: "The type of teapot known as a Cadogan is all one piece; it has no lid and is filled through a hole in the bottom. A tube runs up from the bottom nearly to the top. When it is filled and then inverted, the tea can only come out through the spout. The lidless teapot sometimes poses a puzzle for the uninitiated."

Knowing my grace and dexterity, it sounds like I better stick with a teapot with a removable lid.