The French Tea house Mariage Frères has just opened its first ever UK concession in Selfridges . (It opened its first tea room in Paris in 1854).  It stocks a vast array of teas, with exotic names like Thé sur le Nil, Pleine Lune, Marco Polo, Nocturne oriental and Puits du Dragon, as well as their unusual teapots and accessories.

Their glass teapots are all made in France. The one shown top right is called ‘Push me please’ – push down the lid and the tea pours out without having to lift the teapot…

The black teapots are in cast-iron, hand-crafted according to Japanese tradition.

The exotic gold-plated ‘Karawan’ teapot is a gold-plated reproduction of a model exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.  It’s £950 (and comes in a silver-plated version as well).

The Mariage Frères concession is in the newly-redesigned lower ground floor at Selfridges. There are also outlets there for Anthropologie, Tom Dixon, World of Scandinavia, Le Creuset and Vodu Nuvo.