Historically, tea is a very old beverage. Although tea
leaves were originally chewed for their stimulating properties for thousands of
years, legend says that the practice of drinking tea was discovered by Chinese
Emperor Shen Nung in 2732 B.C. after leaves from a tea tree blew into a pot of
boiling water. When the emperor sampled the liquid, he was taken with the
taste. For thousands of years afterward, tea was drunk in China as a medicinal
beverage. By 350 C.E., tea was being planted and domestically cultivated by the
Chinese.
After this time, the use of tea began to spread to areas of
Asia outside of China. Chinese tea was first introduced into Europe in the 16th
century and traded commercially by the Dutch East India Company in 1610. Later,
tea was brought to the London market by the English East India Company where it
became very popular with elite British families. Tea’s popularity with the
English was such that they began to grow it in British India and Ceylon (Sri
Lanka) and to develop rituals such as Afternoon Tea based around the brewing
and consumption of the liquid.
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The 19th-century
clipper Cutty Sark (now a museum in Greenwich, England) was built for use
in the tea trade (photo by Kimberly Sebestyen) |
The popularity of tea drinking with Europeans increased as its price fell through the 18th century. As well, tea drinking spread into the colonies of North America with the influence of Europe on the New World. As all Americans know, tea figured prominently in the 1773 Boston Tea Party where rebels, angry at Britain’s “taxation without representation”, dumped over 300 chests of East India Company tea into the Boston harbor.
Due to the popularity of tea worldwide – it is currently the second most consumed beverage after water – the accessories needed for storing, brewing, and drinking tea are numerous. In turn, this means that tea-related artifacts are common on archaeological sites.
Originally, tea was pressed into hard bricks, which would be
ground and mixed into a frothy drink similar to matcha. This tea was then drunk
out of wide bowls instead of cups. After the 7th century C.E., loose
leaf teas became more popular and the teapot, adapted from other use, became
the vessel of choice for brewing tea. The loose tea would have been placed into
a pot of boiling water and strained when finished steeping.
After it became popular in Europe, loose leaf tea would have
been stored in chests or canisters. This would preserve its freshness while crossing
the seas and later in the home. And because tea was expensive in the 18th
century, many of the chests locked to prevent theft.
Collections from sites around the Philadelphia area have yielded many teapots in different shapes, colors, and designs.
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White salt-glazed stoneware tea bowls and tea pots from Philadelphia. Collections of The State Museum of Pennsylvania, Section of Archaeology |
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Scratch blue salt-glazed stoneware teapot recovered at Ephrata Cloister(36LA0981). Collections of The State Museum of Pennsylvania, Section of Archaeology |
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Teapots from the
Community and Domestic Life Section of The State Museum of Pennsylvania. |
In the mid-18th century, the first teacups as we know them were created by Robert Adams. A tea bowl with an added handle allowed a person to drink their tea more easily and without burning their fingers. Early teacups were made from delicate porcelain; however, teacups come in an almost endless number of materials, shapes, and decorations.
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Variety of teacups from Market Street sites. |
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Creamware
teacup recovered from the Fort Hunter site (36DA0159) |
In the 19th century, infusers or strainers were used to keep loose tea leaves contained Tea bags as we know them were not created until the early twentieth century. Legend says that an American tea importer, Thomas Sullivan, began sending out samples of tea wrapped in silk in 1908. When some of his customers misunderstood and placed the whole pouch into boiling water, an idea for individually wrapped tea was born.
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Tea
infuser/strainer in the Community and Domestic Life Section of the State Museum
of Pennsylvania Collections of The State Museum of
Pennsylvania, Section of Archaeology |
Tea drinking has become a deeply entrenched custom in many societies, so much so that tiny tea sets are made and used by children. This toy teacup was recovered from the Fort Hunter site (36DA0159) in Dauphin County and likely belonged to one of the children who grew up there.
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Tiny teacup toy recovered from the Fort Hunter site (36DA0159) Collections of The State Museum of Pennsylvania, Section of Archaeology |
Many of these examples are from Philadelphia due to the number of archaeological projects and recorded sites but there are also many other site collections that contain this type of historic ceramics. As always, the Market Street and Fort Hunter assemblages and other collections held by the Section of Archaeology are available for scholarly research as approved by scheduled appointment. To see additional examples of ceramics from the collections of the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission, visit our collections and our other blogs which have featured a wide array of ceramics.
Additional Reading:
Tea History- http://www.coffeeteawarehouse.com/tea-history.html
Tea traditions- https://www.theteaspot.com/pages/tea-traditions
History.com – Boston Tea Party - https://www.history.com/topics/american-revolution/boston-tea-party#:~:text=The%20Boston%20Tea%20Party%20was,India%20Company%20into%20the%20harbor.
Teapot History- https://pathofcha.com/blogs/all-about-tea/a-brief-history-of-the-teapot
International Tea Day- https://nationaltoday.com/international-tea-day/
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