Tea-table [ Furniture & Interior decoration / Rituals & Ceremonies / Eating & Drinking ]
… synecdoche for the sociable assembly. As an idea, the tea-table referred to a sociable encounter, including both men and women, occasioned by the consumption of tea, and typically characterized as focused on conversation and gossip. Objects > … of the coffee-house, tea was strongly marked, from its inception, by its association with high status socializing, with women and the royal court, and with the domestic or private sphere. It is also worth noting that all tea consumed in … this sense the tea-table was also a tea-preparation utensil. The form of and market for tea-tables importantly reflected women’s taste and patterns of consumption, and in this way they were distinctive. 2 2 . Ann Martin, ‘Tea Tables …
Conversation | Domesticity | Exoticism | Furniture | Gossip | Politeness | Public sphere | Tea | Tea-table
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