For many, the joy of collecting is in the pursuit, seeing shows, meeting artists, reading and learning about the field, developing, assembling and displaying their point of view. The resulting satisfaction of living with a carefully chosen collection is further heightened by knowing that living artists have been encouraged and supported by the collector's involvement in the process.

The enthusiastic response to Pinch Pottery's first group exhibition of teapots, tea sets and theme-related pieces, has turned this show into an annual event. Sustained interest gave it momentum to travel to other galleries in New York; Boston; Las Vegas; Springfield, Illinois and Kingston, Jamaica.

Why teapots? Why not other standard ceramic forms - vases, platters, pitchers or bowls? In part it's because teapots are multidimensional objects steeped in world culture and ceramic history. Also, the form makes its stand at the intersection of the art versus craft debate, probing limits in both directions, at times simultaneously.

For the potter, making a teapot provides complex challenges that are often cited as the most difficult to overcome. As the various parts (body, lid, handle, spout and foot) are assembled, each maker must solve technical difficulties while deciding on design, proportion and decoration. Teapots are likely to be the objects with which both potters and clay sculptors demonstrate the heights of their creative and technical skills.

Collectors have responded in kind. As they have purchased and assembled collections unified by one idea, ceramists have been encouraged to produce even finer examples. But it has taken more than just the physical teapot to encourage this specialized direction in collecting. Many are first drawn to the form by the philosophy embodied by the cultural concept of tea.

In Japan, ceramic vessels necessary for the tea ceremony are among the most highly revered cultural objects.

In England, tea has had an important role from international trade to daily social patterns of all classes. The first teapots were made as imitations of imported Chinese porcelains and expressed the interweaving of Western and Eastern aesthetics. At the British Empire's zenith, afternoon tea was appropriated across the world into the cultures of the British colonies.

America's singular relationship with tea is often traced back to the Boston Tea Party. The relationship of many of today's ceramic artists with the formal teapot is equally irreverent to authority.

Currently, tea drinking is making a comeback in the U.S. - some say Americans are switching from "happy hour" to "tea time." Excessive social drinking is increasingly frowned upon and, with executives facing shrinking expense accounts, the "power lunch" is being replaced by the "power tea." Herbal teas popularized during the sixties are also gaining acceptance as more people try to avoid caffeine.

Concurrently, collecting ceramics has gained legitimacy and the concept of investment buying has been fostered (by galleries and more recently by auction houses). Interior design has also been a positive influence on the assembly of collections, as decorating with ceramics has proved to be a trend. National magazines regularly feature personalities with interesting collections, and focus on homes that incorporate handmade objects and commissioned art/craft works. This attention has helped make "handmade" an important part of contemporary lifestyle and interior planning for both home and office.

Teapot collections vary in content and can include antique, folk art and commercially produced ware, as well as studio work. Limitations, such as price or size, may serve to eliminate some objects from consideration, yet focus the collection in meaningful ways. Some collectors choose only a few artists to collect in depth, acquiring a spectrum of an individual's pots over the years, documenting his/her growth and changes. Others respond to painted/decorated content or subject matter - humor, narration and color. There are those who are only interested in artists whose work is considered more sculptural than functional, and vice versa.

The art of collecting is by nature subjective, and the subjectiveness of the teapot is endless. The ultimate teapot may be sought but never found.

Leslie Ferrin is cofounder of P!NCH in Northampton, Massachusetts and Ferrin Gallery of Croton, New York. Since it's debut in 1979, the annual "Tea Party" show has included works by ceramists. This article was written for Ceramics Monthly, September, 1992.