The Secret Lives of Teacups

I'm sure I'm romanticizing the cups and saucers in my collection, but I just love inventing stories about where they all came from and what their lives might have been like before they landed at my home.

Over the weekend, I had to blink to make sure I wasn't misreading the price on this stack of teacups and saucers at an area antique mall: $4 for all of them. We're talking $1 per set, or 50 cents per piece. I wondered (as I made a beeline for the register) how the seller could afford to rent space in an antique mall and then sell vintage teacups for $1 per set.

So I had to adopt these poor little cups and saucers and bring them home with me. In honor of this magnificent find, I used one of the sets for my favorite tea, Emperor's Bride, which can only be drunk from a worthy cup.