Bascom spills the tea about her collection

Pieces or sets are from places such as the Biltmore Mansion in North Carolina, Victoria Falls, England and Zimbabwe.

By Rich Wicks | Guthrie Center Times

Glenda Bascom of rural Guthrie Center says she has two reasons she collects tea pots. First, she simply likes collecting sets and pieces that catch her eye. But, more importantly, she enjoys the people whom she gets to spend time with when she uses one of her tea sets.

“It kind of started with a gift and with grandkids,” Bascom said. “For our 25^th wedding anniversary, my husband’s family gave to us a beautiful tea set, which I loved. And then we started having grandkids shortly after that, and I started having little tea parties with the grandkids. We would bring out a little table, and we would have a tea party on the lawn.”

Later, the children of Glenda and Dr. Steven Bascom moved away.

“But when they came back, my daughter and I would put on these elaborate tea parties for the grandkids and great-nieces,” Bascom said.

By then, she had realized that young hands may occasionally drop a fragile teacup, so she had started buying tea sets for the grandkids to use. 

“Then, as we traveled, I got thinking that this might make a nice souvenir from each place that we’d been,” Bascom said.

So, she was actively collecting tea sets for use with grandkids and other tea sets she wished to keep intact. Bascom showed pieces or sets from places such as the Biltmore Mansion in North Carolina, Victoria Falls, England and Zimbabwe.

“I’m part of the women’s ministry at our church, so I enjoy putting together little teas for the ladies in the women’s ministry,” Bascom said. “Our women’s ministry also did a tea party for the ladies at New Homestead for Valentine’s Day.”

When asked what is included in a tea set, Bascom said that depends on each set.

“It varies. Most of the time, there’s a teapot, the cream and sugar, and the teacups and saucers. Some of them will have a tray,” she said.

Bascom doesn’t know exactly how many she has but said her collection is not about monetary value.

“I collect because I like them. I like flowers, so most of mine are flowers,” she said.

Bascom said she may add to her collection occasionally, if she finds something special.

“We’ve had the privilege of going on several mission trips over the years. Usually, on the return trip, we’ll stop and have a layover. If we were to take a trip, I’d probably look for another one to add to the collection,” Bascom said. 

In recalling the mission trips, Bascom told of a time her husband played a small trick on her.

“On one of those trips, we stopped in England, and I found teacups that I really liked, so I purchased those and brought them home. A couple years later, my husband got to go back on a mission trip. I didn’t because we had a brand new grandbaby,” Bascom said.

She asked her husband to look for a matching teapot, and he found it at a Harrod’s store in the airport and told her he was bringing it home.

“But when he got home, the first thing he showed me was one of those little souvenir types,” Bascom said.

The item was a creamer made to look like an old red British phone booth. It was nothing like what she had asked him to find.

“And then he finally pulled out the right one and gave it to me,” Bascom said with a smile.

Because Bascom realizes the grandkids are growing up quickly, she keeps photo albums of the various tea parties she’s held.

“Last year, I did a tea party for all of them, the boys and the girls,” she said. “But the boys had to pull out the chairs for the girls, and they got to help serve, to teach them some etiquette.”