Sepia Saturday challenges bloggers to share family
history through old photographs.
This week’s Sepia Saturday prompt is a familiar scene: a
married couple enjoying their afternoon tea in the garden. Tea. In a teacup. So
refined. So genteel. But I have to wonder - do people use teacups anymore? In
my house, mugs are the receptacle of choice. That seems to be the trend among
my family and friends as well.
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| Teacups, dark pink lemonade glass, china trivet |
However, I do have a small teacup collection, not of my
making, though. Most of the teacups had belonged to my grandmother, but others
came from my grandaunts Violetta Davis Ryan and Velma Davis Woodring. The
teacups are displayed in a beautiful pine corner cabinet that had belonged to
my great-grandmother Mary Frances Jollett Davis. I must admit, they are quite
lovely.
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| Mary Frances's corner cabinet filled with heirloom china |
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| Demitasse set belonging to my great grandmother Mary Sudie Eppard Rucker The cups are marked "Bavaria." |
Then several years ago I attended a meeting in the home of an elderly lady who served tea in a variety of lovely floral teacups that looked much like my grandmother’s.
The thin china kept the tea piping hot - not tongue-scalding hot, mind you, just good and hot. The gentle clink as I rested the cup in the saucer was a pleasant sound that doesn’t come with everyday mugs, that’s for sure. Ah yes, this is the allure of fine china.
Coffee and tea at a meeting today are more likely to be
served in a Styrofoam cup. At today’s bridal shower or baby shower, hostesses proudly
set out matching paper plates, cups, and napkins coordinated with appropriately
colored plastic forks. Pretty enough. But this ol’ dinosaur drags out the
Jeanette Shell Pink milk glass snack sets that my family has entertained with
for generations.
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| Shell pink milk glass by Jeanette Depression glass |
I mourn the
passing of the fondness for fine china and crystal. Don’t get me started on
silver!
Grab a cup of tea and join us at Sepia Saturday.
Wendy
© 2018, Wendy Mathias.
All rights reserved.
Beautiful, nostalgic tea cups. A feast for the eyes! Thank you for this delightful post.
ReplyDeleteYour collection is so pretty and I love your corner cabinet. Your shell pink milk glass set is great!
ReplyDeleteI don't have any tea cups and rarely drink tea, but I have considered getting one for occasional tea drinking. I think it would be fun to drink tea from a special cup on a cold winter day.
ReplyDeleteI have only 1 tea cup. I did not inherit any fine china. I usually drink my tea in a cup that my daughter made for me. Not fine china, but nice to hold and drink out of. I do wish my life was such that we pulled out the fine china on holidays, alas we bring out the paper.
ReplyDeleteI have a small collection of fine china tea cups which we rarely use I must admit, but my mother-in-law regularly uses hers. Tea out of paper or styrofoam cups tastes horrible!
ReplyDeleteWe use fine china mugs, for the best of both worlds.
ReplyDeleteEvery once in a while, I pull out the besties and we enjoy the silver and china. The thin rim on the cup adds a touch of sensual pleasure to tea drinking you just cannot experience with a mug. I'll have to listen for the gentle clink next time I have the pleasure. Love your milk glass.
ReplyDeleteI was lucky enough to drink tea with my mother when I was little out of tea cups, I even had a small cup that was just for me. We even used sugar cubes and Mum brewed the tea in a proper tea pot. I inherited some tea cups and some demitasse sets from my grandparents but I must admit, I drink my tea from mugs.
ReplyDeletePS - your collection is lovely, the milk glass set is fabulous.
ReplyDeleteOh I love seeing those cups and saucers, and gave my good china to one of my sons a few years ago...I'm sure he never gets out the cups and saucers. I did keep the teapot, since it had a crack and would only be displayed, not used. I have returned to brewing tea, but drink out of fine handcrafted pottery!
ReplyDeleteI have a cup and saucer my Mom gave me years ago. It's not flowery, but has a scene of a barn and mill. It's called "Mill Stream" by Johnson Bros. of England. I don't know that it's 'fine' china, but I love it. I also have a collection of teapots and cups and saucers by Mary Engelbreit which I also love! All good for either tea or coffee! When I was young I was fascinated with my grandmother drinking her coffee. She had a cup and saucer. She took her coffee with condensed milk and at least 3 lumps of sugar, then poured it from the cup into the saucer and drank it from the saucer.
ReplyDeleteThat Milk Glass snack set is absolutely to die for! I would drag it out, too :-) Mugs seem to have arrived with overconsumption of everything -- so a small teacup would no longer suffice. Now it seems all sets of dishes come with mugs, except of the fine-china variety.
ReplyDeleteI love your collect. I have photographed a few pieces of china belonging to relatives and written up the story associated with each piece eg. 21st gift or wedding gift etc. I began doing this after I was given two tea sets of my grandmother's and realized that I didn't know why she had prized them so highly - so then I started to document the reasons why someone kept a particular piece. I sat with quite a few people now and heard some wonderful stories bases around tea sets.
ReplyDeleteThe finer appreciation of demitasse cups and floral saucers are beyond my grasp. But I very much like the beautiful figure in the pine corner cabinet. My grandparents had a similar one that was built into a corner of their dining room by the carpenter who built their house in 1935. It was always overfilled with my grandmothers china and plate which was NEVER used except on rare major family gatherings.
ReplyDeleteI do have some tea cups, but I keep forgetting that I have them and when anybody comes for coffee or tea I always get the mugs out of the cupboard. When I was growing up in the 1950s and early 1960s my parents always used teacups.
ReplyDeleteI have a full set of china and I have never, ever used the tea cups. My cup of choice for my tea is a Starbucks cup that I use for several days - sure don't get any nice clinking sound with that!
ReplyDelete