There are teacups … and then there is THIS cup!

 

Saturday was a gorgeous day, and Alex I drove over to Anniston, Alabama, to visit his sister and brother-in-law. We ate lunch at a Mexican restaurant that happened to be right next door to an antique mall that my mom and I used to visit, so after Alex and I said goodbye to them, we stopped by for a little shopping. I bought a robin’s-egg-blue enamelware pan that may make an appearance on here later this spring, but my greatest find was the world’s biggest vintage teacup!

I’ve seen oversized teacups before, but never one this large that was obviously old. Here it is next to a normal bone china teacup for comparison. So how large was it?

Well, the set measures about 4-1/2 inches tall.

And the saucer is 7-1/4 inches in diameter.

Just for fun, I got out a measuring cup to see how much liquid this Big Gulp of a teacup would hold, and the answer is … 22 ounces! I could barely pick it up. I asked Alex to try, and he agreed with me that there’s no way you could fill this with liquid and comfortably drink from it. So what was it designed to hold? Cheerios? Marshmallows? Popcorn? I can’t imagine. I’ve read that some “breakfast cups” were this large to accommodate large servings of coffee, but again, I don’t see how you could hold this one. There's lots of crackling, so it's probably a good thing I don't actually intend to drink out of this.

The cup is unmarked. The saucer is stamped Dresden China. As soon as I saw this set, I knew I wanted it, but I thought yeah, that’s probably gonna be out of my price range. When I saw $5 on the sticker, I couldn’t get to the register fast enough.

And here’s what I’m using it for: a planter!