Water Pitcher

The silver water pitcher was first made in the late eighteenth century. A favorite nineteenth-century New England pitcher was shaped like a barrel with two bands around it. The pear-shaped pitcher was popular in Pennsylvania, and a similar pear-shaped pitcher having a deeper neck was popular in the South.

The Tea Urn

The tea urn became popular at the end of the eighteenth century. The urn originally held hot water, but it was later used to serve strained tea. The urn replaced the kettle. The tea urn usually had a spigot similar to that used on a beer keg. The teapot had a pouring spout. Photo: New […]

Teapots

Tea was a scarce and expensive drink when it was first introduced in England during the seventeenth century. Early teapots were designed to hold just one cup of tea. By the mid-1700s the teapot had been enlarged, and it held several cups of tea. After 1800 the teapot became the large six-cup size we know […]

Silver Tea Service

Let’s Have Tea–Or Take A Coffee Break Tea and coffee, and chocolate too, were introduced to Europe about the same time in the early seventeenth century. They were popular in England by the mid-seventeenth century and in America by the 1690s. Chocolate was preferred at first. Then coffee, being cheaper, became the most popular beverage. […]

Tankard

The original tankard was made from hollowed logs bound with iron. It held water. The word “tankard” finally came to mean any tall, one-handled wooden or metal drinking vessel, especially one with a lid. The tankard has been used since the sixteenth century, but it reached the height of its popularity during the eighteenth century. […]

Soup Tureens And Other Large Bowls

The custom of serving soup from a tureen, or large bowl, developed during the late seventeenth century in England and France. The tureen was placed on a side table or in the center of the dining-room table. The idea of a large, attractive, covered bowl for soup has changed very little during the past three […]

Orange And Grapefruit Spoons

The oddly shaped serrated spoon bowl that tapers near the end so it is pear-shaped was made to remove fruit sections from oranges and grapefruit. It was a popular Victorian spoon.

Sugar Tongs

During the eighteenth century, sugar was sold in large, cone-shaped loaves. Sugar nippers were used to cut the large lump of sugar into usable pieces. The early eighteenth-century sugar tongs were used to serve small pieces of sugar. They resemble scissors with a spoonlike end. The bow-shaped tongs that resemble two spoons joined by an […]

Tea-Caddy Spoon

The tea-caddy spoon is a short-stemmed silver tea scoop that was first used about 1770. The caddy spoon had a short handle and was kept inside the tea canister. Some caddy spoons were shaped like shells, grape leaves, shovels, feathers, jockey caps, eagles, flour scoops, and leaves. They were made until the end of the […]

Fish Slice

The earliest silver fish slices, or fish servers, were made in the late eighteenth century. The first ones were shaped like a bricklayer’s trowel. By the nineteenth century, the silver server was shaped like a triangle (similar to a cake server) or a fish or resembled a large table knife. Often they were pierced so […]