Tea and coffee were being introduced into England in the middle part of the seventeenth century but although a silver teapot is known from 1670 and a silver coffee pot from ten years later it was not really until the reign of Queen Anne( 1702-1714) that items for tea and coffee started to be made in silver.
Furthermore although silver tea sets are known to exist from this period they are of extraordinary rarity and one really has to wait until the 1770s and 1780s before they become more commonplace and even then the three piece set, tea, sugar and cream without the coffee pot is more typical.
The earliest tea sets of the 1780s century normally have a swing-handle basket for sugar rather than a bowl with two handles that became more common from the very late eighteenth century and sometimes what is known as a sugar vase which is an urn shape lidded vessel.
From the beginning of the nineteenth century the styles and varieties of tea sets that were being produced increased dramatically and became a very important addition to the lifestyle of the wealthy in the nineteenth century.
One feature that often surprises people is the large size of the sugar bowl in the nineteenth century , sugar came in a loaf form , no nice refined sugar from the local supermarket in those days.
William Walter Antiques has a fine selection of tea services from the eighteenth century right up to the modern era.
