It took some time for tea cups to be known as the objects we see today.
When tea cups first arrived during George 11 reign, they were much like those in the middle East, which did not have handles. Tea cup origins can be traced back to China and India. In these countries the cups were made out of porcelain, with no handles, and were consequently called tea bowls- they are still used in these countries today.
The colors used by the potters during this period of 206-220 A.D where white or light blue.
According to another source, tea cups were first introduced by the French in the 1700’s. Originally, the french drank from wooden tea cups. However, as tea was quite expensive when it was first introduced, only the wealthiest Brits drank it. Thus, tea cups now began to be produced as dainty little porcelain cups with hand painted flowers and sometimes even gold leaf was used.
As tea popularity grew, the Dutch and British started to like their tea hot enough to dissolve sugar and big enough to splash in some milk. Up until this time, most people had their tea at room temperature, so scorched hands wasn’t an issue. Now people were trying to find ways to drink tea hot and gracefully. And this is how tea cups got their handles. A few years later, saucers began to appear. Both of these were invented by a man named Robert Adams. He also designed matching tea pots, creamers, and bowls. And the English welcomed his design as they thought that the tea bowls they had been using too messy and burned their fingers.
Now we have a variety of tea cups, tea sets, and even names to those tea cups and sets. I hope you enjoyed this brief history of the tea cup, and I shall see you in the next post.
Alyssa
information found at these sites
www.wuhstry.com
caffeineandyou.com
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