Teapot collection causes a stir in Boorowa Community Op Shop window

There was a teapot Lyn Diskon remembers as a child. It was one of those shiny, green aluminium ones, complete with a cosy. Inside it was as black as midnight with the tannin from near-constant use.

“It was my parents’ teapot, and when they moved to coffee, I got it,” says Lyn.

“It makes the best cup of tea.”

Today, Lyn has hundreds of teapots, most of which take up a whole window in the Boorowa Community Op Shop, which she founded back in 2017.

“In October 2011, I had about six teapots,” she says. “Today, there’s more than 400.”

And Lyn has her favourites.

There’s the little old woman who lives in a shoe, a prized Sgt. Pepper’s Beatles set, which her daughter found in the UK, and some stunning Art Deco ones.

Lyn doesn’t mind if the teapots are quirky. In fact, the quirkier the better.

Like the Doctor Who one, the R2-D2 Star Wars plunger pot, the musical Sadler teapot, and one so tiny it can sit on a $1 coin.

She loves them all.

Lyn moved to Boorowa in 2012, wanting somewhere to base herself near where her children were scattered. She wanted to set up an op shop in the town, and not just as a place to find teapots.

As an inveterate op shopper, she knew how valuable they can be to a small town, and was keen to open one in Boorowa after an absence of such a shop for some years.

Working with Boorowa Rotary Club, she opened her store, with profits going straight back to the community.

The Boorowa Community Op Shop’s volunteers elect which community cause the op shop money goes to.

“I don’t think a day goes past when someone doesn’t ask me about all the teapots in the front window,” says Lyn.

“I even put up a sign that says they’re not for sale, but that doesn’t stop people asking. So I usually tell them they can have them all for $10,000,” she laughs, knowing full well they will never be sold.

Lyn decided to display them in the shop window because her house was too small to show them off.

“That section of the shop has a sunken floor anyway so there was not a lot else we could do with it,” she says.

But she does make up for it at home with her ‘treepot tree’, a young liquid amber in her front yard which she created with her granddaughter. It’s the perfect home for those teapots without a lid.

So with more than 400 in Lyn’s collection, is there room for more?

“I’ll keep collecting as long as I see ones I like,” she says. “I’m always on the lookout for them.”

You can see Lyn’s teapot collection at Boorowa Community Op Shop situated on Pudman Street in Boorowa.

Do you love collecting? Historic, kitsch, tasteful, weird – there’s no judgement here, except we are not immune to tacky (hint, hint).

Just email a few details about what you collect and why to shopman@region.com.au, and you may well see your collection displayed right here for all to enjoy.