The Pagoda Blue Tea Set

I guess you could say that a funny thing happened on the way to Wormsloe. I'd already breezed in and out of six state park gift shops by that point, but as a popular tourist stop, Wormsloe has a magnificent visitor center and gift shop, and this blue transferware tea set immediately caught my eye. I loved the shape of the teapot and that tray best of all but figured they would be too pricy for me. A teacup, maybe? I picked up one and it said $31.99, which seemed a little much for a single teacup. Then I looked again and realized it said $131.99. For a teacup? Have they lost their minds? But then I realized that was the price for the whole set! I stood there and dickered over it and decided I would make up my mind as I toured Wormsloe. And you can see what I decided, especially after finding that blue teapot in the Wormsloe museum.

Blue-and-white tea wares never go out of style, and every Fourth of July, I wish I had more. Plus, I'm planning to write a cookbook about all the patriotic holidays, and every piece in this set could make an appearance next to one of the vintage recipes I'll be including. I loved the shape of this sugar and creamer.

The teapot lid was a real "wow" item for me.

And my favorite piece is the tray. The full set is too small to display on the little skirted table where I set it for this photo, so after Valentine's Day, it may end up on a sturdy table in my living room. It's the perfect memento of my visit to Wormsloe, but more important, it's also something that will be quite useful in my work in the years ahead. And when I got home, I looked online and found the set available at several sites but never for as good a price as I got. So I'm choosing to see this not as a splurge but as an investment! (And a beautiful one.)