Figure 9. — The Honeymoon, by John CoUctt. aboul 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 Refer erne Library.) 



placed in front of the lady who pours the tea." ^" 

 This practice is depicted in a number of 18th-century 

 pictures, with the tea table well out in the room, 

 often in front of a fireplace, and with seated and 

 standing figures at or near the table (fig. 1 ). Evidence 

 of such furniture placement in American parlors is 

 recorded in a sketch and note Nancy Shippen re- 

 ceived from one of her beaus, who wrote in part: *- 



. . . this evening I passed before Vour house and seeing Com- 

 pany in the parlour I peep'd through the Window and saw 

 a considerable Tea Company, of which by their situation 



<' Bayard, op. cil. (footnote 31), p. 47. 



*' Letter from [Louis Guillaume] Otto [to Nancy Shippen], 

 undated, Shippen Papers, bo.\ 6, Manuscripts Division, Library 

 of Congress. The letter is dated about 1780 by Ethel Armes, 

 op. cit. (footnote 21), p. 8. 



I could only distinguish four persons. You will see the plan 

 of this Company upon the next page. 



In the sketch (fig. 8), a floor plan of the Shippen 

 parlor, we can see the sofa against the \\all between 

 the windows, while chairs and tea table ha\e been 

 moved out in the room. The table is near the fire- 

 place, 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 \i\ the fire." " In the south 



<3 Jacob Hiltzheimer, Extracts Jrom the Diary oj Jacob Hiltz- 

 heimer of Philadelphia, 1765-170S, edited by Jacob Cox Parsons, 

 Philadelphia, 1893, p. 94. 



PAPER 14: TEA DRINKING IN 18TH-CENTURV AMERICA 



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