Chapter 2

Figure 8.—A sketch by Louis Guillaume Otto that was enclosed in a letter to Nancy Shippen of Philadelphia about 1780. The sketch indicates the placement of the furniture in the Shippen parlor and the location of the tea-party participants. The “Explication” accompanying the drawing reads in part: “A.Old DrShippensitting before the Chimney....B.MrLeewalking up and down, speaking and laughing by intervalls....C.Miss Nancy[Shippen] before the tea table....D.MrsShippenlost in sweet meditations.E. F. G.Some strangers which the Spy [Mr. Otto] could not distinguish.H.Cyrus [the butler] standing in the middle of the room—half asleep.I.MrOttostanding before the window....” From Shippen Papers, Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress.

In the sketch (fig. 8), a floor plan of the Shippen parlor, we can see the sofa against the wall between the windows, while chairs and tea table have been moved out in the room. The table is near the fireplace, where Miss Shippen served the tea. In the 18th century such an arrangement was first and foremost one of comfort, and perhaps also one of taste. The diary of Jacob Hiltzheimer indicates that in 1786 the first signs of fall were felt on August 1, for the Philadelphian wrote: “This evening it was so cool that we drank tea by the fire.”[43]In the south as in the north, tea—or, at the time of the American Revolution its patriotic substitute, coffee—was served by the fire as soon as the first winter winds were felt. Philip Fithian, while at Nomini Hall in Virginia, wrote in his journal on September 19, 1774: “the Air is clear, cold & healthful. We drank our Coffee at the great House very sociably, round a fine Fire, the House and Air feels like winter again.”[44]

Figure 9.—The Honeymoon, by John Collett, about 1760. In the midst of a domestic scene replete with homey details, the artist has depicted with care the tea table and its furnishing, including a fashionable tea urn symbolically topped with a pair of affectionate birds. (Photo courtesy of Frick Art Reference Library.)

Table cloths—usually square white ones (as infig. 9) that showed folds from having been stored in a linen press—were used when tea was served, but it is difficult to say with any certainty if their use depended upon the whim of the hostess, the type of table, or the time of day. A cloth probably was used more often on a table with a plain top than on one with scalloped or carved edges. However, as can be seen inFamily Group(fig. 1) andAn English Family at Tea(frontispiece), it was perfectly acceptable to serve tea on a plain-top table without a cloth. Apparently such tables were also used at breakfast or morning tea, because Benjamin Franklin, in a letter from London dated February 19, 1758, gave the following directions for the use of “six coarse diaper Breakfast Cloths” which he sent to his wife: “they are to spread on the Tea Table, for nobody breakfasts here on the naked Table, but on the Cloth set a large Tea Board with the Cups.”[45]Some of the 18th-century paintings depicting tea tables with cloths do deal with the morning hours, as indicated by their titles or internal evidence, as inThe Honeymoon(fig. 9) painted by John Collett about 1760. In this scene of domestic confusion and bliss, a tray or teaboard has been placed on the cloth, illustrating Franklin’s comment about English breakfast habits. Cloths may also be seen in pictures in which the time of day cannot be determined. Therefore, the use of a cloth at teatime may in truth have depended upon the hostess’s whim if not her pocketbook.

In addition, trays or teaboards of various sizes and shapes were sometimes used. They were usually circular or rectangular in form, occasionally of shaped or scalloped outline. Some trays were supported upon low feet; others had pierced or fretwork galleries or edges to prevent the utensils from slipping off. Wood or metal was the usual material, although ceramic trays were also used. At large gatherings a tray was often employed for passing refreshments (fig. 4). “A servant brings in on a silver tray the cups, the sugar bowl, the cream jugs, pats of butter, and smoked meat, which are offered to each individual,” explained Ferdinand Bayard.[46]The principal use of the tray was, of course, to bring the tea equipage to the table. Whether placed on a bare or covered table, it arrived with the various pieces such as cups and saucers, spoons, containers for sugar and cream or milk, tongs, bowls, and dishes arranged about the teapot.

Figure 10.—Pieces of a tea set of Crown-Derby porcelain, dating about 1790. The cups and saucers, covered sugar bowl, container for cream or milk, plate and bowls are ornamented with gilt borders and a scattering of blue flowers on a white ground (USNM 54089-54095; Smithsonian photo 45541-A.)

Such tea furnishings of ceramic were sold in sets; that is, all pieces being of the same pattern. Newspaper advertisements in the 1730’s specifically mention “Tea Setts,” and later in the century ceramic imports continue to include “beautiful compleat Tea-Setts” (fig. 10). In the early 18th century, tea sets of silver were uncommon if not actually unique, though pieces were occasionally made to match existing items, and, in this way, a so-called set similar to the pieces seen inTea Party in the Time of George I(fig. 5) could be formed. However, by the latter part of the century the wealthier hostesses were able to purchase from among a “most elegant assortment of Silver Plate ... compleat Tea and Coffee services, plain and rich engraved.”[47]When of metal, tea sets (fig. 11) usually consisted of a teapot, containers for sugar and cream or milk, and possibly a slop bowl, while ceramic sets, such as the one seen inFamily Group(fig. 1), included cups and saucers as well.

Figure 11.—Silver tea set consisting of teapot, sugar bowl, container for cream or milk, and waste bowl, made by John McMullin, of Philadelphia, about 1800. Matching coffee and hot water pot made by Samuel Williamson, also of Philadelphia. The letter “G,” in fashionable script, is engraved on each piece. (USNM 37809; Smithsonian photo 45541.)

While the tea set illustrated inFamily Groupappears to have all the basic pieces, it can hardly be considered a “complete” tea set when compared with the following porcelain sets listed in the 1747 inventory of James Pemberton of Boston:

In addition, the Pemberton inventory lists a silver tea pot and “1 pr. Tea Tongs & Strainer,” items that were undoubtedly used with the ceramic sets.[48]

Tea sets were even available for the youngest hostess, and the “several compleat Tea-table Sets of Children’s cream-colored [ceramic] Toys” mentioned in a Boston advertisement of 1771 no doubt added a note of luxury to make-believe tea parties during playtime.[49]The pieces in children’s tea sets, such as the ones pictured from a child’s set of Chinese export porcelain (fig. 6), usually were like those of regular sets and differed only in size. Little Miss Livingston must have been happy, indeed, when her uncle wrote[50]that he had sent

... a compleat tea-apparatus for her Baby [doll]. Her Doll may now invite her Cousins Doll to tea, & parade her teatable in form. This must be no small gratification to her. It would be fortunate if happiness were always attainable with equal ease.

The pieces of tea equipage could be purchased individually. For instance, teacups and saucers, which are differentiated in advertisements from both coffee and chocolate cups, regularly appear in lists of ceramic wares offered for sale, such as “very handsome Setts of blue and white China Tea-Cups and Saucers,” or “enamell’d, pencill’d and gilt (fig. 12), red and white, blue and white, enamell’d and scallop’d (fig. 13), teacups and saucers.”[51]These adjectives used by 18th-century salesmen usually referred to the types and the colors of the decorations that were painted on the pieces. “Enameled” most likely meant that the decorations were painted over the glaze, and “penciled” may have implied motifs painted with a fine black line of pencil-like appearance, while “gilt,” “red and white,” and “blue and white” were the colors and types of the decoration. Blue and white china was, perhaps, the most popular type of teaware, for it regularly appears in newspaper advertisements and inventories and among sherds from colonial sites (fig. 7).

Figure 12.—Cup and saucer of Chinese export porcelain with scalloped edges and fluting. The painted decoration of black floral design on the side of the cup is touched with gold; the borders are of intersecting black vines and ribbons. (USNM 284499; Smithsonian photo 45141-D.)

Figure 13.—Hand-painted Staffordshire creamware teacup excavated at the site of a probable 18th-century and early 19th-century china shop in Newburyport, Massachusetts. Decoration consists of a brown band above a vine border with green leaves and blue berries over orange bellflowers. The spiral fluting on the body and the slight scalloping on the edge of this cup are almost identical with that on the cup held by Mrs. Calmes infigure 15. (USNM 397177-B; Smithsonian photo 45141-C.)

Concerning tea, the Abbé Robin went so far as to say that “there is not a single person to be found, who does not drink it out of china cups and saucers.”[52]However exaggerated the statement may be, it does reflect the popularity and availability of Chinese export porcelain in the post-Revolutionary period when Americans were at last free to engage in direct trade with the Orient. Porcelain for the American market was made in a wide variety of forms, as well as in complete dinner and tea sets, and was often decorated to special order. Handpainted monograms, insignia of various kinds, and patriotic motifs were especially popular. A tea set decorated in this way was sent to Dr. David Townsend of Boston, a member of the Society of the Cincinnati, by a fellow member of the Society, Maj. Samuel Shaw, American consul at Canton. In a letter to Townsend from Canton, China, dated December 20, 1790, Shaw wrote:

Accept, my dear friend, as a mark of my esteem and affection, a tea set of porcelain, ornamented with the Cincinnati and your cypher. I hope shortly after its arrival to be with you, and in company with your amiable partner, see whether a little good tea improves or loses any part of its flavor in passing from one hemisphere to the other.

Appended to the letter was the following inventory,[53]which provides us with a list of the pieces deemed essential for a fashionably set tea table:

2 tea pots & standsSugar bowl & doMilk ewerBowl & dish6 breakfast cups & saucers12 afternoon do

2 tea pots & stands

Sugar bowl & do

Milk ewer

Bowl & dish

6 breakfast cups & saucers

12 afternoon do

Porcelain, however, had long been a part of China-trade cargos to Europe and from there to America. The early shipments of tea had included such appropriate vessels for the storage, brewing, and drinking of the herb as tea jars, teapots, and teacups. The latter were small porcelain bowls without handles, a form which the Europeans and Americans adopted and continued to use throughout the 18th century for tea, in contrast to the deeper and somewhat narrower cups, usually with handles, in which chocolate and coffee were served. Even after Europeans learned to manufacture porcelain early in the 18th century, the ware continued to be imported from China in large quantities and was called by English-speaking people, “china” from its country of origin. Porcelain also was referred to as “India china ware,” after the English and continental East India Companies, the original traders and importers of the ware. “Burnt china” was another term used in the 18th century to differentiate porcelain from pottery.

Whatever the ware, the teacups and saucers, whether on a tray, the cloth, or a bare table, were usually arranged in an orderly manner about the teapot, generally in rows on a rectangular table or tray and in a circle on a round table or tray. In the English conversation piece painting titledMr. and Mrs. Hill in Their Drawing Room, by Arthur Devis about 1750, the circular tripod tea table between the couple and in front of the fireplace is set in such a way. The handleless teacups on saucers are neatly arranged in a large semicircle around the rotund teapot in the center that is flanked on one side by a bowl and on the other by a jug for milk or cream and a sugar container. Generally, cups and saucers were not piled one upon the other but spread out on the table or tray where they were filled with tea and then passed to each guest.

Figure 14.—The Old Maid, an English cartoon published in 1777. In Print and Photograph Division, Library of Congress. Although the Englishwoman apparently is defying established tea etiquette by drinking from a saucer and allowing the cat on the table, her tea furnishings appear to be in proper order. The teapot is on a dish and the teakettle is on its own special stand, a smaller version of the tripod tea table.

Pictures show male and female guests holding both cup and saucer or just the cup. An English satirical print,The Old Maid(fig. 14), published in 1777, was the only illustration found that depicted an individual using a dish for tea, or, to be exact, a saucer. In the 18th century a dish of tea was in reality a cup of tea, for the word “dish” meant a cup or vessel used for drinking as well as a utensil to hold food at meals. A play on this word is evident in the following exchange reported by Philip Fithian between himself and Mrs. Carter, the mistress of Nomini Hall, one October forenoon in 1773: “Shall I help you, Mr. Fithian, to a Dish of Coffee?—I choose a deep Plate, if you please Ma’am, & Milk.”[54]The above suggests that the practice of saucer sipping, while it may have been common among the general public, was frowned upon by polite society. The fact that Americans preferred and were “accustomed to eat everything hot” further explains why tea generally was drunk from the cup instead of the saucer. According to Peter Kalm, “when the English women [that is, of English descent] drank tea, they never poured it out of the cup into the saucer to cool it, but drank it as hot as it came from the teapot.”[55]Later in the century another naturalist, C. F. Volney, also noted that “very hot tea” was “beloved by Americans of English descent.”[56]From this it would appear that “dish of tea” was an expression rather than a way of drinking tea in the 18th century. On the table a saucer seems always to have been placed under the cup whether the cup was right side up or upside down.

Figure 15.—Mrs. Calmes, by G. Frymeier, 1806. In Calmes-Wright-Johnson Collection, Chicago Historical Society. The cup and saucer (or bowl), possibly hand-decorated Staffordshire ware or Chinese export porcelain, are decorated with dark blue bands and dots, wavy brown band, and a pink rose with green foliage. (Photo courtesy of Chicago Historical Society.)

Teaspoons, when in use, might be placed on the saucer or left in the cups. The portrait titledMrs. Calmes(fig. 15), painted by G. Frymeier in 1806, indicates that handling a cup with the spoon in it could be accomplished with a certain amount of grace. Teaspoons also were placed in a pile on the table or in a silver “Boat for Tea Spoons,” or more often in such ceramic containers as “Delph Ware ... Spoon Trays,” or blue-and-white or penciled china “spoon boats.”[57]

Figure 16.—Silver tongs in the rococo style, made by Jacob Hurd, of Boston, about 1750. (USNM 383530; Smithsonian photo 45141.)

Tongs were especially suited for lifting the lumps of sugar from their container to the teacup. During the 18th century both arched and scissor type tongs were used. Instead of points, the latter had dainty flat grips for holding a lump of sugar (fig. 16). The early arched tongs were round in section, as are the pair illustrated inTea Party in the Time of George I(fig. 5), while tongs made by arching or bending double a flat strip of silver (fig. 17) date from the second half of the 18th century. These articles of tea equipage, variously known as “tongs,” “tea tongs,” “spring tea tongs,” and “sugar tongs,” were usually made of silver, though “ivory and wooden tea-tongs” were advertised in 1763.[58]According to the prints and paintings of the period, tongs were placed in or near the sugar container. Teaspoons were also used for sugar, as illustrated in the paintingSusanna Truax(fig. 2). Perhaps young Miss Truax is about to indulge in a custom favored by the Dutch population of Albany as reported by Peter Kalm in 1749: “They never put sugar into the cup, but take a small bit of it into their mouths while they drink.”[59]

Figure 17.—Silver tongs made by William G. Forbes, of New York, about 1790. In the United States National Museum. The engraved decoration of intersecting lines is typical of the neoclassic style. A variant of this motif appears as the painted border on a porcelain cup and saucer of the same period (fig. 12). (USNM 59.474; Smithsonian photo 45141-A.)

Shallow dishes, such as the one seen in the portraitSusanna Truax, and hemispherical bowls were used as containers for sugar. Often called “sugar dishes” or just “sugars,” they were available in delftware, glass (fig. 18), and silver as well as in blue-and-white, burnt, enameled, and penciled china. Some containers were sold with covers, and it has been suggested that the saucer-shaped cover of the hemispherical sugar dish or bowl, fashionable in the first half of the 18th century, also served as a spoon tray. However, in the paintingTea Party in the Time of George I(fig. 5) the cover is leaning against the bowl and the spoons are in an oval spoon tray or boat. Another possibility, if the lid was multipurpose, is that it was used as a dish or stand under the teapot to protect the table top. Silver sugar boxes, basins, and plated sugar baskets were other forms used to hold sugar,[60]which, in whatever container, was a commodity important to the Americans. As Moreau de St. Méry noted, they “use great quantities in their tea.”[61]

Figure 18.—Stiegel-type, cobalt-blue glass sugar dish with cover, made about 1770. (USNM 38922; Smithsonian photo 42133-D.)

Containers for cream or milk may be seen in many of the 18th-century teatime pictures and are found in the advertisements of the period under a variety of names. There were cream pots of glass and pewter and silver (figs. 19and20), jugs of penciled and burnt china, and in the 1770’s one could obtain “enameled and plain three footed cream jugs” from Mr. Henry William Stiegel’s glass factory at Manheim, Pennsylvania. There were cream pails, urns, and ewers of silver plate, and plated cream basins “gilt inside.”[62]Milk pots, used on some tea tables instead of cream containers, were available in silver, pewter, ceramic, and “sprig’d, cut and moulded” glass.[63]Although contemporary diarists and observers of American customs seem not to have noticed whether cream was served cold and milk hot, or if tea drinkers were given a choice between cream and milk, the Prince de Broglie’s comment already cited concerning his ability to drink “excellent tea with even better cream” and the predominance of cream over milk containers in 18th-century advertisements would seem to indicate that in this country cream rather than milk was served with tea in the afternoon.

Figure 19.—Silver creamer made by Myer Myers, of New York, about 1750. The fanciful curves of the handle and feet are related to the rococo design of the sugar tongs infigure 16. (USNM 383553; Smithsonian photo 45141-F.)

Figure 20.—Silver creamer made by Simeon A. Bayley, of New York, about 1790. The only ornamentation is the engraving of the initials “R M” below the pouring lip. (USNM 383465; Smithsonian photo 45141-E.)

While the Americans, as the Europeans, added cream or milk and sugar to their tea, the use of lemon with the beverage is questionable. Nowhere is there any indication that the citrus fruit was served or used with tea in 18th-century America. Punch seems to have been the drink with which lemons were associated.

Often a medium-sized bowl, usually hemispherical in shape, is to be seen on the tea table, and it is most likely a slop bowl or basin. According to advertisements these bowls and basins were available in silver, pewter, and ceramic.[64]Before a teacup was replenished, the remaining tea and dregs were emptied into the slop bowl. Then the cup might be rinsed with hot water and the rinsing water discarded in the bowl. The slop basin may also have been the receptacle for the mote or foreign particles—then inherent in tea but now extracted by mechanical means—that had to be skimmed off the beverage in the cup. In England this was probably done with a small utensil known to present day collectors as a mote spoon or mote skimmer. Although the exact purpose of these spoons remains unsettled, it seems likely that they were used with tea. It has been suggested that the perforated bowl of the spoon was used for skimming foreign particles off the tea in the cup and the tapering spike-end stem to clear the clogged-up strainer of the teapot spout. The almost complete absence of American-made mote spoons suggests that these particular utensils were seldom used here. Possibly the “skimmer” advertised in 1727 with other silver tea pieces was such a spoon.[65]No doubt, tea strainers (fig. 21) were also used to insure clear tea. The tea dregs might then be discarded in the slop bowl or left in the strainer and the strainer rested on the bowl. However, only a few contemporary American advertisements and inventories have been found which mention tea strainers.[66]Punch strainers, though generally larger in size, seem to have doubled as tea strainers in some households. The 1757 inventory of Charles Brockwell of Boston includes a punch strainer which is listed not with the wine glasses and other pieces associated with punch but with the tea items: “1 Small Do. [china] Milk Pot 1 Tea Pot 6 Cups & 3 Saucers & 1 Punch Strainer.”[67]Presumably, the strainer had last been used for tea.

Figure 21.—Silver strainer made by James Butler, of Boston, about 1750. The handle’s pierced pattern of delicate, curled vines distinguishes this otherwise plain strainer. (USNM 383485; Smithsonian photo 44828-J.)

The teapot was, of course, the very center of the social custom of drinking tea; so, it usually was found in the center of the tray or table. At first, only teapots of Oriental origin imported with the cargos of tea were available, for the teapot had been unknown to Europeans before the introduction of the beverage. However, as tea gained acceptance as a social drink and the demand for equipage increased, local craftsmen were stimulated to produce wares that could compete with the Chinese imports. Teapots based on Chinese models and often decorated with Chinese motifs were fashioned in ceramic and silver. No doubt many an 18th-century hostess desired a silver teapot to grace her table and add an elegant air to the tea ceremony. A lottery offering one must have raised many a hope, especially if, as an advertisement of 1727 announced, the “highest Prize consists of an Eight Square Tea-Pot,” as well as “six Tea-Spoons, Skimmer and Tongs.” By the end of the century “an elegant silver tea-pot with an ornamental lid, resembling a Pine-apple” would have been the wish of a fashion-conscious hostess. Less expensive than silver, but just as stylish according to the merchants’ advertisements were “newest fashion teapots” of pewter or, in the late 18th century, Britannia metal teapots. The latest mode in ceramic ware also was to be found upon the tea table. In the mid-18th century it was “English brown China Tea-Pots of Sorts, with a rais’d Flower” (probably the ceramic with a deep, rich brown glaze known today as Jackfield-type ware), “black,” “green and Tortois” (a pottery glazed with varigated colors in imitation of tortoise shell), and “Enameled Stone” teapots. At the time of the American Revolution, teaware imports included “Egyptian, Etruscan, embossed red China, agate, green, black, colliflower, white, and blue and white stone enamelled, striped, fluted, pierced and plain Queen’s ware tea pots.”[68]

Sometimes the teapot, whether ceramic, pewter, or silver, was placed upon a dish or small, tile-like stand with feet. These teapot stands served as insulation by protecting the surface of the table or tray from the damaging heat of the teapot. Stands often were included in tea sets but also were sold individually, such as the “Pencil’d China ... tea pot stands,” advertised in 1775, and the “teapot stands” of “best London plated ware” imported in 1797.[69]The stands must have been especially useful when silver equipage was set on a bare table top; many of the silver teapots of elliptical shape with a flat base, so popular in the latter part of the 18th century, had matching stands raised on short legs to protect the table from the expanse of hot metal. On occasion the teapot was placed on a spirit lamp or burner to keep the beverage warm.

In most instances it was the hot water kettle that sat upon a spirit lamp or burner rather than a teapot. Kettles were usually related to the form of contemporary teapots, but differed in having a swing handle on top and a large, rather flat base that could be placed over the flame. Advertisements mention teakettles of copper, pewter, brass, and silver, some “with lamps and stands.”[70]The actual making of tea was part of the ceremony and was usually done by the hostess at the tea table. This necessitated a ready supply of boiling water close at hand to properly infuse the tea and, as Ferdinand Bayard reported, it also “weakens the tea or serves to clean up the cups.”[71]Thus, the kettle and burner on their own individual table or stand were placed within easy reach of the tea table. According to 18th-century pictures the kettle was an important part of the tea setting, but it seldom appeared on the tea table. Special stands for kettles generally were made in the same form as the tea tables, though smaller in scale (fig. 14). The square stands often had a slide on which to place the teapot when the hot water was poured into it.

Both pictures and advertisements reveal that by the 1770’s the tea urn was a new form appearing at teatime in place of the hot water kettle. Contrary to its name, the tea urn seldom held tea. These large silver or silver-plated vessels, some of which looked like vases with domed covers, usually had two handles on the shoulders and a spout with a tap in the front near the bottom. “Ponty pool, japanned, crimson, and gold-striped Roman tea urns” imported from Europe were among the fashionable teawares advertised at the end of the 18th century.[72]The urn might be placed on a stand of its own near the table or on the tray or table in the midst of the other equipage as it is in the painting titledThe Honeymoon(fig. 9). Wherever placed, it signified the newest mode in teatime furnishings. One Baltimorean, O. H. Williams, in a letter dated April 12, 1786, to a close friend, enthusiastically explained that “Tea & Coffee Urns plated (mine are but partially plated and are extremely neat) are the genteelest things of the sort used now at any House & tables inferior to the first fortunes.”[73]

Figure 22.—The sign of “The Tea Canister and Two Sugar Loaves” used by a New York grocer and confectioner in the 1770’s. Other “tea” motifs for shop signs in the 18th century included “The Teapot,” used by a Philadelphia goldsmith in 1757, and “The Tea Kettle and Stand,” which marked the shop of a Charleston jeweller in 1766.

The tea canister (fig. 22), a storage container for the dry tea leaves, was yet another piece of equipment to be found on the table or tray. Ceramic canisters of blue and white, and red and gold, could be purchased to match other tea furnishings of the same ware, and silver tea canisters often were fashioned to harmonize with the silver teapots of the period. Individual canisters were produced, as well as canisters in sets of two or three. A set of canisters usually was kept in the box in which it came, a case known as a tea chest or tea caddy, such as the “elegant assortment of Tea-caddies, with one, two and three canisters” advertised in 1796.[74]Canister tops if dome-shaped were used to measure out the tea and transfer it to the teapot. Otherwise, small, short-handled spoons with broad, shallow bowls known as caddy spoons and caddy ladles were used. However handled, the tea could have been any one of the numerous kinds available in the 18th century. Although Hyson, Soughong, and Congo, the names inscribed on the canister infigure 22, may have been favored, there were many other types of tea, as the following advertisement from theBoston News-Letterof September 16, 1736, indicates:[75]

To be Sold ... at the Three Sugar Loaves, and Cannister ... very choice Teas, viz: Bohea Tea from 22 s. to 28 s. per Pound, Congou Tea, 34 s. Pekoe Tea, 50 s. per Pound, Green Tea from 20 s. to 30 s. per Pound, fine Imperial Tea from 40 s. to 60 s. per Pound.

In the 18th century tea drinking was an established social custom with a recognized etiquette and distinctive equipage as we know from the pictures and writings of the period. At teatime men and women gathered to pursue leisurely conversations and enjoy the sociability of the home.

A study ofAn English Family at Tea(frontispiece) will summarize the etiquette and equipage of the ritual—

On the floor near the table is a caddy with the top open, showing one canister of a pair. The mistress of the house, seated at the tea table, is measuring out dry tea leaves from the other canister into its lid. Members of the family stand or sit about the square tea table while they observe this first step in the ceremony. A maidservant stands ready with the hot water kettle to pour the boiling water over the leaves once they are in the teapot. In the background is the tripod kettle stand with a lamp, where the kettle will be placed until needed to rinse the cups or dilute the tea.

Not seen in this detail of the painting is the entry of a male servant who is carrying a tall silver pot, which may have contained chocolate or coffee. These two other social beverages of the 18th century were served in cups of a deep cylindrical shape, like the three seen on the end of the table. The shallow, bowl-shaped, handleless teacups and the saucers are arranged in a neat row along one side of the table. The teapot rests on a square tile-like stand or dish that protects the table from the heat. Nearby is a bowl to receive tea dregs, a pot for cream or milk, and a sugar bowl.

The teatime ritual has begun.

CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF PICTURES CONSULTED

1700 ca.

Portrait Group of Gentlemen and a Child.Believed to be English or Dutch. Reproduced in Ralph Edwards,Early Conversation Pictures from the Middle Ages to about 1730, London, 1954, p. 117, no. 73.

1710 ca.

The Tea-Table.English. Reproduced inThe Connoisseur Period Guides: The Stuart Period, 1603-1714, edited by Ralph Edwards and L. G. G. Ramsey, New York, 1957, p. 30.

1720 ca.

A Family Taking Tea.English. Reproduced in Edwards,Early Conversation Pictures, p. 132, no. 95.

Two Ladies and a Gentleman at Tea.Attributed to Nicolaas Verkolje, Dutch. Reproduced in Edwards,Early Conversation Pictures, p. 96, no. 42.

An English Family at Tea(frontispiece). Joseph Van Aken(?). Reproduced in Percy Macquoid and Ralph Edwards,The Dictionary of English Furniture, revised and enlarged by Ralph Edwards, London, 1954, vol. 1, p. 10, fig. 16.

1725 ca.

Tea Party in the Time of George I(fig. 5). English. Reproduced inAntiques, November 1955, vol. 68, p. vi following p. 460.

1730 ca.

The Assembly at Wanstead House.By William Hogarth, English. Reproduced in Edwards,Early Conversation Pictures, p. 125, no. 87.

Family.By William Hogarth, English. Reproduced in R. H. Wilenski,English Painting, London, 1933, pl. 11a.

Family Group(fig. 1). By Gawen Hamilton, English. Reproduced inAntiques, March 1953, vol. 63, p. 270.

A Family Party.By William Hogarth, English. Reproduced inEnglish Conversation Pictures of the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Century, edited by G. C. Williamson, London, 1931, pl. 10.

1730

Susanna Truax(fig. 2). American. Reproduced inArt in America, May 1954, vol. 42, p. 101.

The Wollaston Family.By William Hogarth, English. Reproduced in Edwards,Early Conversation Pictures, p. 126, no. 88.

1731

Painting on lobed, square delft tea tray. Dutch. Reproduced in C. H. De Jonge,Oud-Nederlandsche Majolica en Delftsch Aardewerk, Amsterdam, 1947, p. 241, fig. 209.

1732

A Tea Party at the Countess of Portland’s.By Charles Philips, English. Reproduced in Edwards,Early Conversation Pictures, p. 132, no. 94.

Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, with His Family.By Gawen Hamilton, English. Reproduced in Edwards,Early Conversation Pictures, p. 130, no. 92.

1735 ca.

The Western Family.By William Hogarth, English. Reproduced in Sacheverell Sitwell,Conversation Pieces, New York, 1937, no. 14.

1736 ca.

The Strode Family.By William Hogarth, English. Reproduced in Oliver Brackett,English Furniture Illustrated, New York, 1950, p. 168, pl. 140.

1740 ca.

The Carter Family.By Joseph Highmore, English. Reproduced inConnoisseur, Christmas 1934, vol. 94, p. xlv (advertisement).

1743

Painting on lobed, circular Bristol delft tea tray. English. Reproduced in F. H. Garner,English Delftware, New York, 1948, pl. 54.

1744 ca.

Burkat Shudi and His Family.English. Reproduced in Philip James,Early Keyboard Instruments from Their Beginnings to the Year 1820, New York, 1930, pl. 48.

1744

Shortly after Marriage, fromMarriage a la Modeseries. By William Hogarth, English. Reproduced inMasterpieces of English Painting, Chicago, 1946, pl. 3.

1745 ca.

The Gascoigne Family.By Francis Hayman, English. Reproduced inApollo, October 1957, vol. 66, p. vii (advertisement).

1750 ca.

Mr. and Mrs. Hill in Their Drawing Room.By Arthur Devis, English. Reproduced inThe Antique Collector, June 1957, vol. 28, p. 100.

1760 ca.

The Honeymoon(fig. 9). By John Collett, English. Photograph courtesy of Frick Art Reference Library, New York.

1765 ca.

Paul Revere.By John Singleton Copley, American. Reproduced in John Marshall Phillips,American Silver, New York, 1949, frontispiece.

1770 ca.

Lord Willoughby and Family.By John Zoffany, English. Reproduced in Lady Victoria Manners and Dr. G. C. Williamson,John Zoffany, R. A., London, 1920, plate preceding p. 153.

Mr. and Mrs. Garrick at Tea.By John Zoffany, English. Reproduced in Manners and Williamson,John Zoffany, R. A., plate facing p. 142.

Sir John Hopkins and Family.By John Zoffany, English. Reproduced in Manners and Williamson,John Zoffany, R. A., second plate following p. 18.

The Squire’s Tea.By Benjamin Wilson, English. Reproduced inAntiques, October 1951, vol. 60, p. 310.

1775

A Society of Patriotic Ladies(fig. 3). Engraving published by R. Sayer and J. Bennet, London. Print and Photograph Division, Library of Congress.

1777

The Old Maid(fig. 14). English. Print and Photograph Division, Library of Congress.

1780 ca.

The Tea Party.By William Hamilton, English. Reproduced inArt in America, May 1954, vol. 42, p. 91 (advertisement).

1782

Conversazioni(fig. 4). By W. H. Bunbury, English. Print and Photograph Division, Library of Congress.

1785 ca.

The Auriol Family[in India]. By John Zoffany, English. Reproduced in Manners and Williamson,John Zoffany, R. A., plate facing p. 110.

1786

Dr. Johnson Takes Tea at Boswell’s House.By Thomas Rowlandson, English. Reproduced in Charles Cooper,The English Table in History and Literature, London, 1929, plate facing p. 150.

1790 ca.

Black Monday or the Departure for School.Engraved by J. Jones after Bigg, English. Reproduced inAntiques, September 1953, vol. 64, p. 163 (advertisement).

1792

Tea at the Pantheon.By Edward Edwards, English. Reproduced in William Harrison Ukers,The Romance of Tea, New York, 1936, plate facing p. 214.

1806

Mrs. Calmes(fig. 15). By G. Frymeier, American. Reproduced inAntiques, November 1950, vol. 58, p. 392.

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