temporary reports on this custom, but it is to the artist 

 we turn for a more clearly defined view. The painter 

 saw, arranged, and gave us a visual image — sometimes 

 richly informative, as in Tea Party in the Time of George I 

 (fig. 5) — of the different teatime items and how they 

 were used. The imknown artist of this painting, done 

 about 1725, has carefully illustrated each piece of 

 equipment considered appropriate for the tea cere- 

 mony and used for brewing the tea in the cups held 

 with such grace by the gentleman and child. 



Throughout the 18th century the well-equipped tea 

 table would have displayed most of the items seen in 

 this painting: a teapot, slop bowl, container for milk 

 or cream, tea canister, sugar container, tongs, tea- 

 spoons, and cups and saucers. These pieces were 

 basic to the tea ceremony and, with the addition of a 

 tea urn which came into use during the latter part of 

 the 18th century, have remained the established tea 

 equipage up to the present day. Even a brief investi- 

 gation of about 20 inventories — itemized lists of the 

 goods and property of deceased persons that were re- 

 quired by law — reveal that in New York between 1 742 

 and 1 768 teapots, cups and saucers, teaspoons, and 

 tea canisters were owned l)y both low and high in- 

 come groups in both urban and rural areas. 



The design and ornament of the tea vessels and 

 utensils, of course, differed according to the fashion 

 of the time, and the various items associated with the 

 beverage provide a good inde.x of the stylistic changes 

 in the 18th century. The simple designs and un- 

 adorned surfaces of the plump pear-shaped teapot in 

 Tea Party in the Time of George I (fig. 5) and the spherical 

 one seen in the portrait Susanna Truax (fig. 2) mark 

 these pieces as examples of the late baroque style 

 popular in the early part of the 18th century. About 

 mid-century, teapots of inverted pear-shape, associ- 

 ated with the rococo style, began to appear. A pot of 

 this shape is depicted in the portrait Paul Revere 

 painted about 1765 by John Singleton Copley and 

 owned by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The fact 

 that a teapot was chosen as an example of Revere's 

 craft, from all of the objects he made, indicates that 

 such a vessel was valued as highly by its maker as by 

 its owner. The teapot was a mark of prestige for both 

 craftsman and hostess. Apparently the famous silver- 

 smith and patriot was still working on the piece, for 

 the nearby tools suggest that the teapot was to have 

 engraved and chased decoration, perhaps of flowers, 

 scrolls, and other motifs typical of the rococo style. 



The restrained decoration and linear outlines of the 

 teapot illustrated in the print titled The Old Maid 

 (fig. 14) and the straight sides and oval shape of the 

 teapot belonging to a late 18th-century child's set 

 (fig. 6) of Chinese export porcelain are characteristics 

 of the neoclassic style that was fashionable at the 

 end of the century. Tea drinkers were extremely 

 conscious of fashion changes and, whenever possible, 

 set their tea tables with stylish equipment in the pre- 

 vailing fashion. Newspaper advertisements, journals, 

 letters, and other written materials indicate that 

 utensils in the "best and newest taste" were available, 

 desired, purchased, and used in this country. 



Further verification of the types and kinds of equi- 

 page used is supplied by archeological investigations 

 of colonial sites. For instance, sherds or fragments 

 of objects dug from or near the site of a dwelling at 

 Marlborough, Virginia, owned and occupied by 

 John Mercer between 1726 and 1768, included a 

 silver teaspoon made about 1735 and two teapot 

 tops — one a pewter lid and the other a Staffordshire 

 salt-glaze cover made about 1745 — as well as numer- 

 ous pieces of blue-and-white Oriental porcelain cups 

 and saucers (fig. 7). Such archeological data pro- 

 vides concrete proof about tea furnishings used in 

 this country. A comparison of sherds from colonial 

 sites with wares used by the English and of English 

 origin indicates that similar types of equipage were 

 to be found upon tea tables in both countries. This 

 also substantiates the already cited American practice 

 of following English modes and manners, a practice 

 Brissot de W'arville noted in 1788 when he wrote 

 that in this country "tea forms, as in England, the 

 basis of the principal parties of pleasures. '* 



Tea furnishings, when in use, were to be seen upon 

 rectangular tables with four legs, square-top and 

 circle-top tripods, and Pembroke tables. Such tables 

 were, of course, used for other purposes, but a sampling 

 of 18th-century Boston inventories reveals that in 

 some households all or part of the tea paraphernalia 

 was prominently displayed on the tea table rather 

 than being stored in cupboards or closets. A "Japan'd 

 tea Table & China" and "a Mahog[any] Do. & 

 China," both in the "Great Room," are listed 

 in Mrs. Hannah Pemberton's inventory recorded 

 in Boston in 1758. The inventory of Joseph Blake 

 of Boston recorded in 1746 lists a "tea Table with a 

 Sett of China furniture" in the iiack room of the 



74 



39 Brissot de W'arville, op. cit. (footnote 6), p. 129. 

 BULLETIN 225: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY .-XND TECHNOLOGY 



