Teapot, Saint-Cloud factory, circa 1720 to 1730

What BBN said about it

1. 

   Gloria Vance · World News AnchorThis is a teapot, made at the Saint-Cloud factory in France, around seventeen twenty to seventeen thirty, per the Met.

2. 

   Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorHold on, I'm putting the loupe in. There are birds on it. Dozens of tiny birds, and not one of them is helping.

3. 

   Gloria Vance · World News AnchorIt is soft-paste porcelain, per the Met, and it stands about thirteen point five centimetres tall.

4. 

   Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorThirteen and a half. That's one cup of tea, Gloria, and a lot of worry.

5. 

   Gloria Vance · World News AnchorLook at the spout, and the little handle. Someone once held this by that handle, very carefully.

6. 

   Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorCarefully? Three hundred years of careful. I can't carry a mug across my kitchen without a eulogy.

7. 

   Gloria Vance · World News AnchorI have taken tea in embassies where the cups were worth more than the embassy. I was asked to leave several.

8. 

   Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorThat tracks.

9. 

   Gloria Vance · World News AnchorDale, this is an object of grace, and you are holding it like a grenade.

10. 

    Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorMy appraisal. Two flat-pack wardrobes, a smoke alarm that chirps at three in the morning, and one very nervous cousin.

11. 

    Gloria Vance · World News AnchorThat is not a valuation. The Met owns the teapot, and it is not for sale.

12. 

    Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorGood. The birds have outlasted every guest it ever poured for, and they'll outlast me too.

13. 

    Gloria Vance · World News AnchorThen you are in good company, Dale. The birds have never once been offered a refill.