earthenware vs porcelain chatsford teapot

My wife and I have a 4 and 6 cup earthenware from Upton's and another 4 cup on the way for use at work. we brew 3-4 pots a day with them and have had them for several months with no problems.

I think you just got bad one.

Mike

FWIW, The London Teapot Co. licenses, but doesn't manufacture them. The earthenware pots from Upton are made by Churchill Ceramics which recently moved production of their earthenware pots to Thailand so there hasn't been much time for them to have a usage history. Bone china overall (not just Chatsford pots) has the reputation of being sturdier than earthenware. Thus, the higher cost.

In the fall of '03, I bought both a 4-cup bone china Chatsford (manufactured by Queen's, a division of Churchill) and a 2-cup Arthur Wood Chatsford that are both still fine although I use the Arthur Wood less than a quarter as often as the 4-cupper because of the smaller capacity.

If I were in your shoes, I'd return & upgrade. It seems to me as though the Thailand factory's still got some kinks to work out in re: quality control and assurance.

(manufactured

I thought to post a link to the info about Churchill moving the factory to Thailand but didn't see what I remembered and found this instead at uptontea.com:

"A Chatsford earthenware teapot with ceramics manufactured in Thailand under the supervision of the London Teapot Company. "

From that, I can't tell whether or not Churchill is still involved or not. However, both my Queen's and Arthur Wood pots are labeled, respectively, "The London Teapot Company" and "The London Teapot Co." on the bottom (The Queen's looks like a decal while AW's is in the clay; the AW pot also has something else that's unreadable.) and when I asked about it, I was told that the label was part of the license agreement.