Tea in the 18th Century
This notebook page focuses on European interiors in which tea is being consumed. These allow you to consider what sorts of tea accoutrements – tea kettles, teapots, tea caddies, teacups, trays, tablecloths, and so on – are being utilized, the clothing worn by the family and servants, and how items on display in the room reflect 18th century tastes for imported goods.
An exhaustive list of links to 18th century tea accoutrements in museum collections and antique shops would overwhelm the scope of this page. There are spectacular examples, like this complete English tea set by Paul de Lamerie, made in 1735, featuring “a set of 12 cast whiplash teaspoons, a mote spoon, an unusual pair of tea tongs, a set of twelve tea knives, two tea caddies, a sugar caddy and a milk jug, all housed in an elegant, silver mounted, fitted shagreen box.” You can also find an assortment of 18th century teaware on eBay. (This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.)
(Other pages on this site focus on the material culture relating to other 18th century beverages, including coffee, punch, and chocolate.)
Additional Resources
When tea-drinking was a fashionable, expensive habit
Exploring our World: Tea (video from Colonial Williamsburg)
Tea parties in early Georgian conversation pieces
Tea Drinking in 18th-Century America: Its Etiquette and Equipage
Two ladies and an officer seated at tea, c. 1715
A tea party by Joseph van Aken, 1719-1721
An English family at tea by Joseph van Aken, c. 1720
Afternoon tea in Holland by Matthijs Naiveu, c. 1720
A family of three at tea by Richard Collins, c. 1727
The tea party by Richard Collins, c. 1727
Assembly at Wanstead House by William Hogarth, 1728-1731
The Wollaston family by William Hogarth, 1730
Tea party at Lord Harrington’s House, St. James’s by Charles Philips, 1730
Man and child drinking tea, c. 1730
The Cromwell and Thornhill families taking tea by Charles Philips, c. 1730
Susanna Truax by the Gansevoort Limner, 1730
Self-portrait with two young men by Louis Philippe Boitard, c. 1730-1740
Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, and his family by Gawen Hamilton, 1732
A tea party at the Countess of Portland’s by Charles Philips, 1732
Portrait of the Porten family taking tea by Gawen Hamilton
Thomas Smith and his family by Robert West, 1733
Portrait of a family by William Hogarth, c. 1735
Woman taking tea by Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, 1735
The Strode family by William Hogarth, c. 1738
The Gascoigne family by Francis Hayman, c. 1740
Jonathan Tyers and his family by Francis Hayman, 1740
A game of quadrille by Hubert-François Gravelot, c. 1740
John Potter and family, c. 1740
A girl with a teacup, after 1740
A family being served with tea, c. 1745
The Temptation by Pietro Longhi, 1746
Porcelain tea cups, a teapot, a jug, sugar bowl, silver spoons and other objects on a draped table
A tea party, mid-18th century
Mr. and Mrs. Hill by Arthur Devis, c. 1750-1751
The Sharpe family, attributed to Arthur Devis, c. 1753
A family group in a garden, c. 1754
Portrait of a young woman, possibly Hannah, the artist’s maid, holding a tea tray by Philip Mercier
Portrait of the artist’s wife, Marie Sophie Robert by Johann Heinrich Tischbein
Tea time by Jan Josef Horemans II
The Countess of Boufflers by Carmontelle, 1760
Modern Love: The Honey-Moon, 1765
John, Fourteenth Lord Willoughby de Broke, and His Family by Johann Zoffany, c. 1766
Tea service on a tray, c. 1770
Contentment in Poverty, c. 1772
The Marquise of Montesson, the Marquise of Crest and the Countess of Damas having tea in a garden by Carmontelle, 1773
The Profligate Punished by Neglect by Edward Penny, 1774
Still Life: Tea Set by Jean-Étienne Liotard, c. 1781-1783
Tea, 1786
City Courtship, 1786
The tea garden by George Morland, 1790
Ladies at tea by Thomas Rowlandson, c. 1790-1795
A cottage interior: An old woman preparing tea by William Redmore Bigg, 1793
The Grand-Papa, 1794
Introduction during tea, 1797
Tea time, end of shift, c. 1800