Figure 17. — Silver tongs made by William G. Forbes, of \e\v York, about 1790. In the 

 United States National Museum. The engraved decoration of intersecting lines is typical of 

 the neoclassic style. A variant of this motif appears as the painted border on a porcelain cup 

 and saucer of the same period (fig. 12). {USNM59.474; Smithsoyiian [tlmln ^-^i ^i-A.) 



Albany as reported by Peter Kaliii in 1740: "They 

 never put sugar into the cup, but take a small l)it of it 

 into their mouths while they drink." ^' 



Shallow dishes, such as the one seen in the portrait 

 Susanna Truax, and hemispherical bowls were used 

 as containers for sugar. Often called "sugar dishes" 

 or just "sugars," they were available in delftware, 

 glass (fig. 18), and silver as well as in blue-and-white, 

 burnt, enameled, and penciled china. Some con- 

 tainers were sold with covers, and it has been suggested 

 that the saucer-shaped cover of the hemispherical 

 sugar dish or bowl, fashionable in the first half of the 

 18th century, also served as a spoon tray. However, 

 in the painting Tea Parly in the Time of George I (fig. 5) 

 the cover is leaning against the bowl and the spoons 

 are in an oval spoon tray or boat. Another possi- 

 bility, if the lid was multipurpose, is that it was used 

 as a dish or stand under the teapot to protect the table 

 top. Silver sugar boxes, basins, and plated sugar 

 baskets were other forms used to hold sugar,"" \\\ 



58 Kalm, op. cit. (footnote 7), vol. 1 , p. 347. 



«» Boston .yews-Lelter, April 4, 1771, November 18, 1742, and 

 January 9, 1772; .Vew-l'ork Gazelle, February 14, 1757; Pennsyl- 

 vania Gazette, January 25, 1759; Rivinglon's .New York Gazeteer, 

 January 13, 1774; .New-Tork Journal, August 3, 1775; Boston 

 Gazette, September 11, 1758; .New-York Daily Advertiser, SeinuMy 

 21, 1797. 



in whatever container, was a comnuxlity important 

 to the Americans. As Moreau de St. Mery noted, 

 they "use great quantities in their tea." ^' 



Containers for cream or inilk may be seen in ni;iny 

 of the 18th-century teatiine pictures and are found in 

 the advertisements of the period under a variet\ of 

 names. There were cream pots of glass and pev\ter 

 and silver (figs. 19 and 20), jugs of penciled and burnt 

 china, and in the 1770's one could obtain "enameled 

 and plain three footed cream jugs" from Mr. Henry 

 William Stiegel's glass factory at Manheim, Pennsyl- 

 vania. There were cream pails, urns, and ewers of 

 silver plate, and plated cream basins "gilt inside." °^ 

 Milk pots, used on some tea tables instead of cream 

 containers, were available in silver, pewter, ceramic, 

 and "sprig'd, cut and moulded" glass.''' Although 

 contemporary diarists and observers of American 

 customs seem not to ha\^e noticed whether cream was 



' ' Moreau d<- Saint-Mery, of>. cit. (footnote 17), p. 38. 



« New-York Gazette, Februaiy 14, 1757; Boston Gazette, May 

 14, 1764; Maryland Gazette, January 4, 1759; .\ew-York Journal, 

 .\ugust 3, 1775; Pennsylvania Gazelle, July 6, 1772, and October 

 31, 1781; Boston News-Letter, April 4, 1771, and January 9, 

 1772; New-York Daily Advertiser, January 21, 1797. 



'« New-York Mercury, October 30, 1758; Pennsylvania Journal, 

 April 25, 1765; Boston News-Leller, January 17, 1745; New-York 

 Gazelle, December 6, 1771. 



PAPER 14: TEA DRINKING IN 18TH-CENTURY AMERICA 



85 



