Porcelain tea sets are usually intended to be used, although some are so fancy it is hard to imagine such a thing. The regular European tea set may consists of the tea pot, sugar, creamer and four or six cups and saucers. Smaller sets may include just the teapot and a couple of mugs. Larger sets may include an additional hot water pot for the second round of tea, a waste jar for the dregs from each cup before a second cup is poured into it, and as many as a dozen cups and saucers.
Tea set makers like Franz include a specific spoon for each tea cup as well These fantasies of flowers, butterflies or ocean creatures are not really meant to be used, but a large tea set can be accumulated with patience and plenty of money.
Oriental tea sets usually consist of the tea pot and an odd number of tea cups, usually five. If the tea pot is smaller, there may only be three, and the pot only golds three cups of tea. Individual tea pots and single cup sets are also available.
A tea for one tea set is usually a stack of saucer, cup and pot, where the pot holds only two cups of tea. These sets can be quite imaginative in their design, with the cup and tea pot begin formed into animals or ornamental forms.
Children’s tea sets usually have the tea pot, sugar, creamer and six or eight cups and saucers, allowing for the inclusion of many stuffed animals and dolls in the youngster’s party. These sets used to be made from china, then metal and are now mostly made from plastic, but it is still possible to collect the older sets made from porcelain with some effort and working with an antique dealer or two.
Since many porcelain tea sets can be acquired one cup and saucer at a time, you can often make up a set to suit your own preferences, rather than accepting the number of cups or sugar bowls that the accepted set contains. Perhaps you have two forms of sugar you want to offer your guests, then two sugar bowls would make sense. You might also want a bowl for slices of lemon, as well as the creamer. And it is always a good thing to have two tea pots so there is plenty of tea to go around.
Find your own pattern and set up your tea set as you see fit.
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