Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-01-08
MAYFLOWER TEA.pOTS.
Did the Pilgrims Parfake of the Cup
That Cheers?

| Inat tDeersg
From the New York journal of Commerce. /,
A correspondent of the Hartford
Couront Tin which we recognize one OF
our most distinguished antiquarian
scholars) treats of subject to which
we have alluded not long since. To his
remarks, which IRE historically conclu-
sive, might be aided the evidence of
knowledge of ceramic art which, APP
| piled to these various tea-pots and
other articles, show them to be fabrics
of quite modern factories. We have
seen Mayhower specimens, so-called,
which were made of porcelain, invented
in the eighteenth century. The writer
In the Cottrant says:
Within the last two or three years
our attention has been called to at
least half dozen tea-pots that came
over In the Mavhower. Each had a
satisfactory pedigree, and all were, age
considered, In remarkable preservation.
There may be hundred orso of these
Mayfower tea-pots cherished as heir
looms by descendants of the Pilgrims.
How many of them, we wonder, will
figure at New England 'tea-parties' to-
day9 And how many Drs. Dryasdust
will feel it their duty to point out, III
the local papers tomorrow or next day,
the fact that the Mayhower passengers
had no tea to drink-that the cups
that cheer but not inebriate' were not
resorted to In New England till seven
ty-fve years or more after the May
flower discharged her cargo IN the
neighborhood Of Plymouth Rock? We
are tempted to got the better of these
captious critics, 10y noting the anach-
ronism in advance.
Holmes, in his American. Annals
states, on the authority of President
Stiles, that tea began to be used In
New England about 1920; but this is
!few-probably ten-years too late.
We have before Us, In the Boston NelrS
Letter for April, 80, 1716, Captain
Arthur Savage's advertisement of the
best sort of Bohta Tea,' for sale very
reasonable at the White House, near
NJ. Colman's church, Boston, and
Green Teas were offered for sale in
lis. Superior Bohea'-but not the
best-sold i'm l719 for 81 1Ss. per
pound about So 50). We may infer
from the price how common were tea
pots In Boston families with moderate
incomes a hundred years after the
Mayfiower came over.
Tea was not an habitual accompani-
ment of the evening or morning meal
before 1850. Even in London it was
unknown till about 1850, and was rare
luxury till 1875, or later. In 1641 an
English writer quotes foreign travel
er's statement that the Chinese drink
the strained liquor, hot, of an herb call
ed Chia'-which was the name the Por-
tugese had borrowed from Japan for
tea. About 1860, one Thomas Cara
way opened tea shop in London, and
in his hand-bill advertisement he men,
toned the fact that the Chinese herb
had been sold at from f6 to Clio a
pound, and, in respect Of its scarceness
and dearness, it hath only been used as
a regalia in high treatments and enter
tainments, and presents thereof made
to princes and grandees, till the year
1857 Old Pepys, the diarist-always
on the lookout fer the novel and Gu
rious, records his first tea drinking in |
1850, L did send Ito Garraway's shop, |
probably for a cup of Tee, a China
drink, of which had never drunk be- |
fore Several years afterwards, he |
found his wife actually making tea at |
home, and learned, ON inquiry, that 1t !
was to be used as medicine, for Mr.. |
Polling, the Potticary, tells her it is
good for her colds
And sO-the passengers In the May |
flower never having seen, and probably |
never having heard of that strangeherb |
CHA, or Tee-we do not see why SO |
many of them took the trouble of pro-
yiding themselves with teapots-unless |
as prototypes and symbols of what was |
to come in 1773. Then there was tea
making in Boston by the quantity
and the best BOhea' was disposed Of |
for less than Ct Is per pound. We hear
from Boston, says the COuTdRt of Dec. |
81, that last Thursday evening, be- |
tween 500 and 400 boxes Of celebrated |
East India tea. by some accident ~ |
which happened in an attempt to get.it |
on shore, fell overheard; that the boxes
burst open and the tea was swallowed |
up in the vast abyss
I'm 1775, afterthe battle of Licking
ton, and when Gage was shut up in |
Boston, an English writer, in An Ode |
to the Earl of Dartmouth gave bit |
of advice to the Ministry:
1.-The stubborn Yankees let alone;
They hurl defiance at the Throne,
And all your schemes unsettle;
To mark YOUR act with more disgrace,
They fling their teaPOts in your face, |
And scald YOU with the kettlc.''