Figure i6. — Silver tongs in the rococo style, made by Jacob Hurd. ol" Boston, about 1750. 

 {USj\M j8j§jo; Smithsonian photo 45141.) 



Ma'am, & Milk." '"^ Tlie 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." ^^ Later in the 

 century another naturalist, C. F. Volney, also noted 

 that "very hot tea" was "beloved by Americans of 

 English descent." ^^ From this it would a]5pear that 

 "dish of tea" was an expressioit rather than a way 

 of drinking tea in the 18th century. On the tal)le a 

 saucer seems always to have l^een placed imdei' the 

 cup whether the cup was right side up or upside down. 

 Teaspoons, when in use, might be placed on the 

 saucer or left in the cups. The portrait titled Mrs. 

 Calmes (fig. 15), painted Ijy G. Frymeier in 1806, in- 

 dicates that handling a ctip with the spoon in it could 

 be accomplished with a certain amount of grace. Tea- 

 spoons also were placed in a pile on the table or in a 



" Fithian, op. cil. (footnote 14), p. 133. 

 ■^5 Kalm, np. ctt. (footnote 7), vol. 1, p. 191. 

 ^' C. F. Volney, Tableau du Climal el dii Sol des Elats-Unis, 

 Paris, 1803, quoted in Sherrill, op. cit. (footnote 8), p. 95. 



siher ''Boat for Tea Spoons," or more often in such 

 ceramic containers as "Delph Ware . . . Spoon 

 Trays," or bluc-atid-white or penciled china "spoon 

 boats." °' 



Tongs were especially suited for lifting the lumps of 

 sugar frotn 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 in Tea Parly in the Tiiiir oj 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, vari- 

 ously known as "tongs," "tea tongs," "spring tea 

 tongs," and "sugar tongs," were usually inade of 

 silver, though "iNory and wooden tea-tongs" were ad- 

 vertised in 1763.°'' 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 painting Susanna Truax 

 (fig. 2). Perhaps young Mi.ss Truax is about to in- 

 dulge in a custom fa\'ored by the Dutch population of 



■i' Boston yews-Letter, March 24, 1774, November 18, 1742, 

 and April 4, 1771 ; New-Tork Journal, August 3, 1775. 



^^ .New-York Gazette, April 3, 1727; Boston Gazette, June 4, 

 1759; Boston News-Letter, January 9, 1772; Maryland Gazette, 

 May 13, 1773; Penn.tvlvania Journal, December 15, 1763. 



84 



BITLLETIN 22.S: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 



