"It always teatime"

Museum Practicum: Objective Blog, Please Touch Museum

Oktavia LaBarge, October 24, 2013

Title: Teapot with Lid

Year: c. 1990-2000

Material: Porcelain

Creator: Unknown

Collection: Please Touch Museum, Wonderland, Royal Collection, Gift of Robyn Green

The object that I have chosen is a Teapot with a Lid from the Please Touch Museum as part of their Wonderland collection. The Please Touch Museum was create in 1976 as a children’s museum dedicated for children seven and under.  Unlike other children’s museum, the Please Touch Museum is a collecting museum and has over 25,000 objects.  The objects that are in the collection are mainly toys that were made after 1945 and are meant to represent the history of children’s toys and encourage the ideas of play, which is an integral part of the museum. This is a porcelain Teapot from the Royal Collection with pictures of Alice in Wonderland at the tea party with the Rabbit and the Mad Hatter.  On the lid it says, “Its always teatime.”

The Teapot is important to the Wonderland exhibit because it adds to the overall theme of Alice in Wonderland.  Alice in Wonderland was first written in 1865 by Carroll Lewis, which originally was a story that Lewis would tell his

Alice Lindell
Lewis Carroll's niece

niece, Alice.  This story is an amazing children’s book, which many children have grown up with their parents reading it to them or watching the movie. It is on display to emphasize the ideas of the exhibition.  This object in particular is on display as part of the tea party.  The Teapot was part of the Royal Collection and was donated by Robyn Green.

To enter the Wonderland exhibition, the visitor first falls, down the rabbit hole, or walks down a ramp to the basement floor.  The walls which lead down the ramp are painted to resemble dirt.  Once the visitor reaches the bottom of the rabbit hole, they are confronted with two different mazes, one made out of grass and the other made with walls.  To find the Teapot, one must enter the grass maze and follow it to the tree where they will find the Mad Hatter and the Rabbit at a tea party.  In the center of the table is an illuminated box which holds a variety of different Alice in Wonderland objects that all relate to tea parties.  On the top of the table are a variety of different colored plastic tea sets where children are invited to dress up as one of the characters and join the Rabbit and Mad Hatter at the table. 

Inside of the illuminated box, in the center of the tea party, with the teapot with lid

are two plates, a Humpty Dumpty Bank, and a Mad Hatter mug.  Next to each object is a label which describes what it is, where it is from, and what it is made of.  This helps visitors who are actually interested in the different objects to help understand what they are looking at.

If a visitor would like to learn more about the Teapot they could consider reading one of the Alice in Wonderland books or watching one of the movies.  The original Alice in Wonderland movie was made in 1951 but has been recently been recreated in 2010.  Someone who was interested in the creation of the book could consider researching Alice Liddell who the story was written about or researching Charles Dodgson, who is better-known as Lewis Carroll, the author of the book.  In addition, someone who is interested in Teapots may consider

researching the history of Teapots and tea or visiting the J’s Tea-rific Teapot Musuem

Overall, the objects that are in the Wonderland exhibit, seem to be more of a backdrop to the actual play aspects of the museum.  Many children who visit the museum may not even notice that there are objects in the collection because they are distracted by all of the other objects that they can play with. Other people who might not be interested in the Teapot would be people who are not interested in the Alice in Wonderland. These visitors who are not interested in the object, may not know the story of Alice in Wonderland and may not know understand why the tea party is an essential part of the book. These visitors may be confused about the Teapot and believe that it is only an object that has the story depicted on it, while not realizing that it is part of the narrative.

To engage visitors with the Teapot, the Please Touch Museum could considering holding an Alice in Wonderland tea party event.  During this event, the museum could use replicas of the teapot and cups to allow visitors to use and have the actual objects in the collections out to allow visitors to see teapots, tea plates, and tea cups that relate to Alice in Wonderland.  During the tea party, people could be invited to dress up as different Alice in Wonderland characters to enhance the experience.  The museum could also hold a movie night, where they show parts of the movie from 1951 and parts from the 2010 movie.  This would create a comparison between the two movies and the advancements in technology.