18th Century Tea

Last updated: Jan 7, 2024

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 out there, 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.

(Other pages on this site focus on the material culture relating to other 18th century beverages, including punch and chocolate.)

• The Tea-Table
• 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
• Lady taking tea
• 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
• Mme la Princesse de Chimay
• 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