Tea Pots and Toby Mugs

Hello everyone! On this week's podcast, we talked a lot about what is considered a collection. When I think of collecting, I always think of my mom. She always told me that everyone needs something to collect. As I grew older, I began to understand what she meant. Everyone does collect something even if they fail to realize it. My grandmother collected bells, my cousin collects snow globes, my coworker collects Pokémon cards, and my boyfriend collects horror movie memorabilia. What drives us to collect things?

When I was little, I was a novice collector of things such as rocks and crystals, pretty coins, and keychains. When I was in the second grade, my cousin gave me one of her old Archie comic books; I was instantly in love and wanted to read more. Every time we were at the grocery store and there was a new digest available, I would ask my mom to buy one for me. Through those newer comics, there were opportunities for me to order some by mail including back issues of my favorites. I loved everything about Archie and the dynamic he had with his friends and the sweet teen romances he had with Betty and Veronica.

In addition to the local bookstore, my mom would take me to vintage comic book stores to see if we could find older Archie editions. A few years later, I collected over 1,000 comics and various pieces of memorabilia. My friend Stacy and I started our own Archie Fan Club and we would read our books together while listening to “Sugar, Sugar” by The Archies. It didn’t occur to me that the comics I collected might be worth something someday. I was collecting these books purely for fun.

As I grew older, I began to share my mom’s interest in antiquing, garage sales, and auctions. My mom was an avid collector of vintage Coca-Cola memorabilia herself. She also restored antiques as a hobby and resold them on eBay. It wasn’t until my mid 20’s that I (accidentally) started my antique collection, which evolved into a greater appreciation of the art of collecting.

I was sitting in my grandmother’s living room one day and I was admiring her teapots. They weren’t my grandmother’s teapots but my great-grandmother’s teapots on my grandfather’s side, and they had always sat on the top shelf of my grandmother’s built-in bookshelf. There were eight of them arranged perfectly, and I always noticed them – even when I was a kid. One was gorgeous (to me), and it had golden polka dots. I told her and my mom that I would like to inherit them one day when she was tired of them. At that point, I had been a casual teapot collector. I had a Snoopy teapot and a Cow Jumping Over the Moon teapot that friends had randomly given to me. I liked teapots, but it was the sentimental value of my great-grandmother’s collection that drew me, especially the shiny polka dots on the one that I specifically noticed.

Zodiac Teacup from my collection

Not long after that conversation, my mom took me to one of the monthly auctions in our hometown of Vernon, Texas. It was an estate auction and among the wares was a collection of vintage China teapots. My mom handed me some money and said I could bid on whatever I wanted, so I bid on those teapots and won. That started my strange journey in teapot collecting. While I do appreciate the art of collecting vintage items for resale like my mom did, this collection journey was purely for my decorative pleasure. Over the years, I have collected teapots from the many antique, auction, and thrift store outings with my mom, and I have been gifted teapots. My tastes also evolved from pretty, shiny teapots to weird and unique-looking ones.

Benjamin Franklin Teapot

In 2017, at an estate sale with my mom, I bought my first Toby Head. What is a Toby Head? According to the American Toby Jug Museum (yes, it exists), a Toby is a ceramic head molded in the form of a popular character, historical, fictional, or generic. Tobys do not have a specific manufacturer. Any ceramic head can be considered a Toby. That being said, I like unique Tobys. Since 2017, I have collected a number of Tobys in many forms from teapots to creamer jugs to mugs. My favorite find was a Benjamin Franklin teapot from a shop in McKinney, Texas called  The Groovy Coop. Recently, I found a pair of king and queen mugs on eBay.

Toby teapot and mug

Some of my mini Toby collection

Last year, after my divorce, I made the difficult decision to downsize many of the things that I had inherited or collected over the years, and my teapots and Tobys were not left unscathed. I only kept the ones that gave me a certain amount of pleasure and the very important ones that my mom and I curated. Now I keep the pure pleasure of my collection to a minimum.

So, what drives us to collect? Is it s psychological need to hunt and categorize or is it the pleasure of just having something sentimental? I believe that it’s both. My mom was right. Everyone needs to collect.

I want to hear from our readers. What do you collect and why do you collect it? Head on over to our Facebook Group: MMC Chat and continue the conversation!

*20 years later, my first-edition near-mint “Betty” comic book is worth $165 according to Nostomania.