Sewing Machine Teapot Porcelain Limoges Box

Here a teapot has been built in the shape of a sewing machine, two familiar outlines blended into one. It is a hand-painted porcelain Limoges box made in Limoges, France, meant for display on a shelf rather than for brewing.

Stitches and Steeping

This design brings together two pastimes that often share the same afternoon: sewing and a pot of tea. The painted details pick out the machine's parts, while the overall form still reads as a teapot. It is a clever mash-up that tends to make people look twice.

Where the Thread Leads

Teapot collectors will enjoy it as one of the more inventive shapes in their set, and quilters and seamstresses tend to claim it as soon as they see it. It sits nicely beside thimble, spool and scissors themed pieces, or among other novelty teapots.

Sewing Room Teatime

• Hand-painted porcelain from Limoges, France
• At home on a sewing room shelf or a kitchen hutch
• A happy present for a quilting circle friend or a tea party hostess

Porcelain has come out of Limoges since the late 1700s, when deposits of fine white kaolin clay were found near Saint-Yrieix-la-Perche in 1768, and novelty shapes like this carry that tradition in a playful direction.