Figure 14.—The Old Maid, an English cartoon published in 1777. In Print and Photograph Division, Library of Congress. Although the Englishwoman apparently is defying established tea etiquette by drinking from a saucer and allowing the cat on the table, her tea furnishings appear to be in proper order. The teapot is on a dish and the teakettle is on its own special stand, a smaller version of the tripod tea table.
Pictures show male and female guests holding both cup and saucer or just the cup. An English satirical print, The Old Maid ([fig. 14]), published in 1777, was the only illustration found that depicted an individual using a dish for tea, or, to be exact, a saucer. In the 18th century a dish of tea was in reality a cup of tea, for the word “dish” meant a cup or vessel used for drinking as well as a utensil to hold food at meals. A play on this word is evident in the following exchange reported by Philip Fithian between himself and Mrs. Carter, the mistress of Nomini Hall, one October forenoon in 1773: “Shall I help you, Mr. Fithian, to a Dish of Coffee?—I choose a deep Plate, if you please Ma’am, & Milk.”[[54]] The 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.”[[55]] Later in the century another naturalist, C. F. Volney, also noted that “very hot tea” was “beloved by Americans of English descent.”[[56]] From this it would appear that “dish of tea” was an expression rather than a way of drinking tea in the 18th century. On the table a saucer seems always to have been placed under the cup whether the cup was right side up or upside down.
Figure 15.—Mrs. Calmes, by G. Frymeier, 1806. In Calmes-Wright-Johnson Collection, Chicago Historical Society. The cup and saucer (or bowl), possibly hand-decorated Staffordshire ware or Chinese export porcelain, are decorated with dark blue bands and dots, wavy brown band, and a pink rose with green foliage. (Photo courtesy of Chicago Historical Society.)
Teaspoons, when in use, might be placed on the saucer or left in the cups. The portrait titled Mrs. Calmes ([fig. 15]), painted by G. Frymeier in 1806, indicates that handling a cup with the spoon in it could be accomplished with a certain amount of grace. Teaspoons also were placed in a pile on the table or in a silver “Boat for Tea Spoons,” or more often in such ceramic containers as “Delph Ware ... Spoon Trays,” or blue-and-white or penciled china “spoon boats.”[[57]]
Figure 16.—Silver tongs in the rococo style, made by Jacob Hurd, of Boston, about 1750. (USNM 383530; Smithsonian photo 45141.)
Tongs were especially suited for lifting the lumps of sugar from 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 Party in the Time of 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, variously known as “tongs,” “tea tongs,” “spring tea tongs,” and “sugar tongs,” were usually made of silver, though “ivory and wooden tea-tongs” were advertised in 1763.[[58]] 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 Miss Truax is about to indulge in a custom favored by the Dutch population of Albany as reported by Peter Kalm in 1749: “They never put sugar into the cup, but take a small bit of it into their mouths while they drink.”[[59]]
Figure 17.—Silver tongs made by William G. Forbes, of New 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]). (USNM 59.474; Smithsonian photo 45141-A.)