please help me mend dds' broken hearts

[hatwoman]

dds had a china tea set. my sil bought it for them in Ethiopia. disaster struck tonight and the whole lot got smashed. I have never seen quite such an out-pouring of grief - I almost cried myself they were so upset. tbh they're nothing special - they're ten a penny throughout the Middle East and in Ethiopia and I'm sure in many other countries. They're small tea cups - espresso sized with slightly old lady flowered patterns on. I reckoned that either the richness of London or the plain old internet would enable me to replace them. so I promised. A prelimary google hasn't helped - so anyone got any bright ideas. anyone know where London's Ethiopians live and where they buy their tea cups from?

Have just had a quick look on e-bay for you and there are a couple of china teasets on there. The only other ones I know about are in hawkins Bazzaar and have teddies on, but I think are much smaller than the one you have descirbed.

Good luck

Can you google images of tea sets and give us a link to something similar, hard to know what it might look like.

Is it 'just for play/pretend' or supposed to be 'functional'?

I don't know about tea sets (well, not the type you mean), but we have a little and very pretty teapot (pale blue with roses on) we can't use as the lid is kaputt and it seems to have a very fine leak. If it would be of some comfort to your dds I'll send it to you.

or this?
Might not be the kind of thing you're looking for, but the English translation should give you a laugh at least...

foundintranslation - that's so kind of you. thank you so much. it's actually only the tea cups - they're functional in Ethiopia and the ME - ie they're not toys - but dds only used them for play. they came with a rather lovely Ethiopian coffee-pot which is fortunately in tact, and a little wooden box where the tea/coffee would be kept. I'll try to find some images. tbh they are exactly like old lady tea cups but espresso size. if all else fails I'll get them an espresso set - but they're just so damn trendy, whereas the awfulness of these was a large part of their charm!

I might have even got a photo of them

have you checked the Entertainer or Bentalls/John Lewis?

even that pound store place near the Argos may have something similar

Have you tried any local toy-shops, hat? Or charity shops, I'm sure I saw some like this in Cancer Research?

I have definitely seen them somewhere so don't despair!

Awww, thanks for that translation, fit - I love German websites, Tchibo can be pretty funny too

Whats your budget? and whats the prority, do you want the flowers, are they roses? Colours?

Plenty espresso cup and saucer sets but can be pricey as you say,

I have 2 espresso cups you could also have, hat (neither of us drink espressos) - but they are, sadly, rather 'trendy' (brown and red modern-art type design and odd handles). Let me know if you want them all the same.

Very cute dotty set , not old-ladies-flowers but am still looking!

Thanks too for your link, Jan - those toys are lovely

Can't see this too well, but is definitely flowery (and made of tin, so unbreakable).

If you can't find soemthing with the right sort of design, what about a paint your own set that they could decorate themselves?

does anyone know how to reduce the file size of a photo?

I have these funky flowers and there is a pretty old-lady dreadful teaset here if you scroll down

like this?

some of these are lovely - the funky flowers are great. thinking about it I think I'll be able to get away with a nice new set, even if it's not Ethiopian.

or this?

Have you thought along the lines of turkish coffee cups i know geopgraphically the wrong way but do have some truly awful designs and are also small HTH and good luck with the search

katymac gets the prize for closest to original. i wish I could show you the photo

Which ones?

Looks like those devotea ones only shop to US, though. They are fab - just what I imagined you to be looking for.

Wow, that looks like what Hatwoman is describing, Katymac!

I like that tin set.

sorry - way behind!