ber of chairs available, and Barbe-Marbois noted that 

 at American tea parties "people change seats, some 

 go, others come." The written and visual materials 

 offer little in the way of evidence to suggest that in 

 general men stood and women sat during teatime. 

 In fact, places at the tea table were taken by both 

 sexes, even at formal tea parties such as the one de- 

 picted in The Assembly at Wanstead House. 



A less formal but more usual tea scene is the subject 

 of another Hogarth painting. The Wollaston Family, 

 now in the Leicester Art Gallery, England. The 

 afternoon gathering has divided into two groups, one 

 playing cards, the other drinking tea. An atmos- 

 phere of ease and comfort surrounds the party. The 

 men and women seated at the card table are dis- 

 cussing the hand just played, while the women seated 

 about the square tea table in front of the fireplace are 

 engaged in conversation. A man listens as he stands 

 and stirs his tea. Each drinker holds a saucer with a 

 cup filled from the teapot on a square tile or stand in 

 the center of the table. One woman is returning her 



cup, turned upside down on the saucer, to the table. 

 More about this particular habit later. 



The same pleasant social atmosphere seen in Eng- 

 lish paintings seems to have surrounded teatime in 

 America, as the previously cited entries in Nancy 

 Shippen's journal book suggest. Her entry for Janu- 

 ary 18, 1784,^' supplies a description that almost 

 matches The Wollaston Family: 



A stormy day, alone till the afternoon; & then was 

 honor'd with the Company of M' Jones (a gentleman 

 lately from Europe) M' Du Ponceau, & M' Hollingsworth 

 at Tea — We convers'd on a variety of subjects & play"" at 

 whist, upon the whole spent an agreable Even* ." 



Tea was not only a beverage of courtship: it also was 

 associated with marriage. Both Peter Kalm, in 1750, 

 and Moreau de .St. Mery, in the 1790's, report the 

 Philadelphia custom of expressing good wishes to a 

 newly married couple by paying them a personal 

 visit soon after the marriage. It was the dutv of the 



-" Shippen, op. cit. (footnote 21), p. 175. 



ro.vviR.i'it/iJv/. 



Figure 4. — Cotwersazioni, by \V. H. Bunbury. published 1782. In Print and Photograph 



Division. Library of Congress. 



PAPER 14: TEA DRINKING IN 18TH-CENTURY AMERICA 



71 



