Description: Canton Tea, Coffee and Chocolate Pots make up a confusing world in defining the many, many variations to be found. Therefore, we have listed all of them under “Teapots”. Designations that have come into common useage such as “Censor”, “Dome-Top”, “Lighthouse” will be used as well as physical descriptions such as “Drum Shape”, “Pear Shape” and “Conical Shape”. In buying any teapot make sure the top fits well.

Lighthouse teapots, with both curved and straight spouts, are considered the most graceful and the most desirable of all the teapot forms. They are conical shaped, have twisted handles, wide bases and a small raised rim around the middle. Also, the bases have rims and the bottoms are glazed. The tops have a persimmon shaped knob, they sit on the rims rather than seated in an inset rim, and they overhang the base rims.  The two teapots pictured here have curved spouts. Both have poorer decoration so we date them later than the straight spout Lighthouse teapots. Special note regarding the smaller teapot: it is the only one to have a vent hole in the top and it does not have the raised rim around the middle like all the other Lighthouse pots.