Figure 13. — ^Hand-painted Staffordshire creamware 

 teacup excavated at the site of a probable 18th-century 

 and early igth-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 in figure 15. {USNM sgyiyy-B; 

 Smithsonian photo 4^141-C.) 



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 

 a letter to Townsend from Canton, China, dated De- 

 cember 20, 1790, Shaw wrote: 



.Accept, m\- dear friend, as a mark of my esteem and affec- 

 tion, 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 iinproves or loses any part 

 of its flavor in passing from one hemisphere to the other. 



Appended to the letter was the following inventory,^' 

 which provides us with a list of the pieces deemed 

 essential for a fashionably set tea table: 



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 appro- 

 priate 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 \vere served. Even after Euro- 

 peans 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. 



W'hatever 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 tabic or 

 tray and in a circle on a round table or tray. In the 

 English conversation piece painting titled Mr. and Mrs. 

 Hill in Their Drawing Room, lay Arthur Devis about 

 1 750, 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 



PAPER 14: TEA DRINKING IN 18TH-CENTURV .^MERIC.^ 



33 W. Stephen Thomas, "Major Samuel Shaw and the 

 Cincinnati Porcelain," Antiques, May 1935, vol. 27, p. 178. 

 The letter and tea set are exhibited at Deerfield, Massachusetts, 

 by the Heritage Foundation. 



81 



