Mended

I am having tea this morning from a large “India Tree” tea cup, owned and cherished by my maternal grandmother, Jean Ogston Willis, nee Malloch.

Indian Tree is a china pattern that was popular during the last half of the nineteenth century. Like many beautiful things, it was inspired by the art of the east, in this case by early Indian textile patterns that include the crooked branch of a tree and a partial landscape with exotic flowers and leaves. India Tree comes in some monochromatic colours — I’ve seen blue, pink, and red, but most of it is like my cup, a lively combination of green, turquoise, blue, pink and a touch of yellow. Like my grandmother, I cherish this cup, though for very different reasons.

Jean Ogston was born in Hamilton, Ontario to a wealthy, well-heeled family. She married my grandfather, George Christopher, and as a wedding gift was given her family’s heirloom set of Coalport India Tree fine china upon which to serve the family meals. Not long after they were married, with two small children in tow, my grandfather decided to join his own father in China as a missionary. Jean’s parents were horrified, but the family, India Tree china and children included, went anyway. They made the voyage in the usual way — by sea — but not in the fashion that Jean would have been accustomed to. They were steerage passengers. I know nothing of the voyage and I can’t recount storms at sea but I can tell you that upon arrival, most of Jean’s heirloom India Tree china was broken and irrecoverable except for a serving bowl, a cream jug, and a few other bits and pieces. I also can’t tell you that my grandmother wept bitter tears — all that is lost to history. What I can tell you is that during the next 20 years in China, struggling on a tiny income from printing and selling Christian tracts and books, she managed to accumulate a few pieces of India Tree china — not Coalport, but less expensive Chinese imitations of the British originals. These were the dishes she used every day. Inevitably they broke, as did the teacup that I have.

But they were mended: There existed in China in those days craftsmen who went from door to door mending broken china, not with glue but with staples. Their work was so fine and so precise that the broken dishes could be used again as if they were whole. This craft is depicted in the 1999 Chinese film, The Road Home, directed by Zhang Yimou.

And so it is that my favourite cup is actually stapled together. Unlike the Coalport china, my cup returned intact with my grandmother to Canada after WWII and was passed on to my aunt who passed it on to my sister, who gave it to me. On the bottom of the cup my sister wrote a few details on piece of masking tape: India Tree pattern, Jean Ogston Malloch. I treasure the cup because it is all I know of Jean. I treasure the cup because of the incredible repair job. I treasure the cup because I am now the keeper of it, and cheap imitation, not withstanding, it holds a fine cup of tea.