Brewing Disobedience with a Tea Set
Presentation Type
Poster
Faculty Advisor
Steffi Dippold
Access Type
Event
Start Date
26-4-2024 12:45 PM
End Date
26-4-2024 1:44 PM
Description
In the late seventeenth century, a German tea set traveled to the States as a family heirloom or perhaps to showcase the taste and refinement of a wealthy family. The owners might have been part of the Crane family given that the tea set resides in Montclair today. Three dark fuchsia petals extend from a bulbous center on either side of the teapot, creating the Ostfriesische or East Fresian rose design. Green leaves embrace the flowers, and stems slope down from the bottom in an upside-down W-shape, a clever hint of the maker, Wallendorf Porcelain, an early manufacturing company in Germany. Stains in the centuries-old spout show remnants of past tea parties. Teapots’ delicate exteriors turned into symbols of idealized female behavior at the time as fragile, decorative, and harmless roses. However, just like the thorn beneath the rose, women brewed revolutionary designs at tea gatherings. It was an outlet to explore new ideas that otherwise would not have been spoken. My paper examines cultural practices surrounding tea and considers the lack of a traditional tea ceremony in the United States, citing the Revolutionary War as a major culprit.
Brewing Disobedience with a Tea Set
In the late seventeenth century, a German tea set traveled to the States as a family heirloom or perhaps to showcase the taste and refinement of a wealthy family. The owners might have been part of the Crane family given that the tea set resides in Montclair today. Three dark fuchsia petals extend from a bulbous center on either side of the teapot, creating the Ostfriesische or East Fresian rose design. Green leaves embrace the flowers, and stems slope down from the bottom in an upside-down W-shape, a clever hint of the maker, Wallendorf Porcelain, an early manufacturing company in Germany. Stains in the centuries-old spout show remnants of past tea parties. Teapots’ delicate exteriors turned into symbols of idealized female behavior at the time as fragile, decorative, and harmless roses. However, just like the thorn beneath the rose, women brewed revolutionary designs at tea gatherings. It was an outlet to explore new ideas that otherwise would not have been spoken. My paper examines cultural practices surrounding tea and considers the lack of a traditional tea ceremony in the United States, citing the Revolutionary War as a major culprit.