Couple’s Teapots on Exhibit at Museum

Taking a tour through the Encino home of Sonny and Gloria Kamm is like walking through a contemporary art museum, with studio glass and sculpture pieces displayed in every room.

But on closer examination a pattern emerges.

Many of the objets d’art are variations of teapots and tea sets, displayed on shelves, in cases and even sitting in drawers and closets.

Some are fanciful, some are practical, others contemporary or antique.

“The common things they all have is the handle, the spout and the lid,” Gloria Kamm said. “But the rest of what the artist does is the creative expression of his work.”

Pieces from the Kamms’ collection of more than 3,500 teapots and tea sets are often on loan to art museums or for exhibitions all over Los Angeles.

“We’re one-stop shopping” for galleries, Gloria Kamm joked.

Beginning this week, more than 100 of their pieces are on display through Feb. 2 at the Craft and Folk Art Museum, 5814 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles.

“We wanted to appeal to a broad range of people with this exhibit,” said Martha Drexler Lynn, deputy director of the museum. “There are pieces with humor, intellectual notions, high-art sensibilities, whimsical things, a broad range of items all in the teapot form.”

The exhibit also will include programs, lectures and hands-on demonstrations for families to participate in, with an eye on tea.

Lynn said the Kamms have an “encyclopedic” mix of pieces, including pots in the shape of baseball players, some made of wire, and others made of nearly every known metal or mineral.

The couple were hard pressed to select favorite pieces from the vast collection, pointing out that several interesting pots--including an ode to King Kong and an abstract piece made of metal bars and balls--never were intended to be functional.

“My favorite is the next one [I buy],” Sonny Kamm said. “If you follow the theory of collecting that the hunt’s the thing, all of these are already in the bag.”