The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-05-04
Tea-Pots and Cream Irgs.

Strdnge TO say, the teapot Is a modern in
vcntton. The ancients never saw the tea plant,
nor tasted that delicious beverage which "cheers
but not tnebriates.n Among the remains OF
ancient Egypt you will find plenty OF earthen
Jars once hlled from the sacred Nile; the mighty
empire OF Aziak has still it's cInerary urns to
show; the esrthen-ware of Celtic peoples is con-
stantly coming to light; and Etruria, the long
vanished home and kingdom of the arts pre-
serves TO this day her vases Of every shape and
unrivalled beauty; but none of these extinct
nations possessed that precious tea pot which
every hovel in England can boast. The case
is not the same with the cream jug. The museum
of Gregory XVI contains numerous vessels
which the Etruscans probably used for milk.
Virgil tells us of the pals in which the Latin
peasants carried their goats milk to market at
daybreak; and every reader of the "Georgicsn re-
members what pains they took to render the
milk savory-how they fed the ewes on clover
lotus, and salt herbs that so they might drink
more water from the brooks, and yield more
Copious and tasty milk, having pleasant smack
of salt. As to asses milk, the Roman bellies
used to battle in ii as certain Parisians are said
to do in champagne; and we may be quite sure
that those who knew the value of milk so well
had no lack OF elegant and costly jugs in which
to serve it.
Tea must wind up our breakfast, even if coffee
takes the precedence; ii must follow the late
dinner, and be served in every gentewomans
boudoir at five o'clock. To the Englishman it
scarcely comes amiss at any hour. 1t Is the
students stimulant, the invalid's medicine; and
to the lone woman IN her old ageit is more than
canary ever can be. 1t affords ''the nice young
gentleman for a tea-party" an admirable oppor-
tunity of displaying his ahectation, and cracking
his feeble iOkes. 1t is the most social of all
beverages, and the already immense consump-
tion of it here is decidedly on the increase.
Although the Chinese send us their tea, we
are not indebted to them for their teapots.
They have each a teacup, furnished with lid,
in which the tea is made separately. The leaf,
chopped up very small and almost in powder, is
put into the cup in the quantity required. Then
hot water is poured upon it, and the lid replaced.
When IL has stood little time they stir it up
ana drink it quite hot and turDid, without sugar
and cream. 1t is very different thing from
our tea, having delicious flavor peculiar TO the
climate. There can be no doubt that the extern
sive use OF the leaf IN this country has given a
great impulse to the ceramic art.
During long ages its beauty and perfection lay
buried in Etruscan tombs. The Italians first
raised Ii from the dust in the fourteenth CEN
tury, and Luca della Robbia, using glaze and
coloring with his terra-cottas, produced the IA
nous Maiolida. The delicate art then moving
northward, torsook the Tuscan factories, aud
fixed its home in the little town of Fayence in
France. Here and at Nevers, patroniZed by
Catharine de Medicl, and improved by Bernard
Palissy, 1t attained high reputation; and its
produc ions are well known to collectors OF old
''chinan by the serpents fish, and other crea-
lures which cover their SURFACE in relief.
The manufacture OF porcelain in China and
Japan had been common from the first century
of the Christian era, but it not till 1913 that
the Portuguese imported it into Europe. Fac
tories followed each other in rapid succession IN
France and England, but the articles produced
cracked easily, and would not bear strong heat.
The first real porcelain was made at Meissen, on
the Elbe, in l7l0, and, under the name of Dres-
den china, became known all over the world.
Its patron, Augustus ii, Elector of Saxony, was
commonly called the Porcelain King
The true Dresden teapots and cream Jugs
have particular marks by which they may be
tested, ard so have those manufactured at the
Hague Vienna and Mayence Sometimes the
ms af xUhn
eagle with the hind foot raised, and now a
stork standing on one leg or flying with frog
in iis beak. The Berlin porcelain ranks next
after Dresden, but that of Sevres surpasses them
both.
Louis XIV, in 1885, there founded the great fac
tory which has since become so eminent; and
about the same time the Worcester Porcelain
Works started as Company, and Josiah Wedg-
wood, like another Prometheus, brought the fire
OF genius into the StafloTdshire potteries, and
gave new life to their clay. The beautiful green
lanes, the banks and hooks, where wild flowers
blossom, were the school in which he first
learned his art.
The berries in the hedgerows, the clinging
ivy, the trailing tendrlls OF the convolvuus, the
strawberrys luscious scarlet, and natures own
exquisite commingling of colors formed his
earliest lessons, his silent but daily teachers.
Forced by pain and disease to abandon the work
OF the thrower, he turned, while still a youth
to the moulder's beard, and there produced the
specimen known as "Wedgwood's first teapot" !"
which is carefully preserved at "Etruria"
This little work was the beginning of career
OF ceaseless activity. The crippled boy rapidly
became an eminent artist, profound chemist IN
relation to his art, philosophical thinker, and
a great industrial leader With self-culture,
and on a system selfdevised, he moved onward
from one success to another. He converted
'sgate-ware" into imitation of porphyry, sold
knife-hafts and snutf-boXes of his own design in
this ware in his eighteenth year, and showed
extraordinary accuracy and taste in the early
EtruIian cream-ware, which was afterwards to
attain in his hands such lightness and perfect
linear harmony.
The tea-seryice of our day differs widely from
that of our ancestors. Whether made of China
ware or earthenware, it is more shapey and
beautiful. The old blue eastern designs, in
have passed SSoV or in1er % oSIy on eottsot
shelves.