A late addition - have you looked at Tea Drinking in 18th-Century America: Its Etiquette and Equipage, by Rodris Roth
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/46775/46775-h/46775-h.htm

This has long been considered a classic source.

Silas Hurry
Historic St. Mary's City


> On March 19, 2018 at 10:49 AM "Cross, Matthew" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
> 
> HistArchers,
> 
> Thank you for your responses.
> 
> It appears the idea of people drinking tea from saucers does have some merits.  The textural sources speak of it as déclassé behavior in the late nineteenth century, including a number of etiquette books and Laura Ingalls Wilder writing of her father. Jan Selmer shared a 1914 Markovsky painting of a woman drinking (or at minimum, cooling) tea in the saucer. Other paintings and old photographs reviewed do not depict such behavior. The examples of saucer drinking, however, seem to be in the minority. It certainly appears to have been a practice, but possibly more in a faddish manner, maybe restricted to the mid-nineteenth century. Though it is also possible that the behavior may have been class related, as the artistic descriptions and etiquette books depicted a higher status life than the average family.
> 
> 
> —Matt Cross
> ______________________________________________
> 
> Matthew E. Cross
> Archaeological Assistant — Historic Section
> 
> Illinois State Archaeological Survey
> Prairie Research Institute
> University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
> 209 Nuclear Physics Lab, MC-571
> 23 East Stadium Drive
> Champaign, IL 61820
> 
> 217.300.3060
> [log in to unmask]
> 
> From: "Cross, Matthew" <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Friday, February 23, 2018 at 11:53 AM
> To: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Saucer Question
> 
> HistArchers:
> 
> I have, for years, seen archaeologists and others note that tea was drunk out of saucers in the 19th century. Generally, it is something along the lines of first the tea was poured into the teacup, then poured from the teacup to the saucer to cool the tea, and finally consumed from the saucer.
> 
> Does anybody have historical references to such behavior? I have only seen modern, anecdotal mentions.
> 
> 
> —Matt Cross
> ______________________________________________
> 
> Matthew E. Cross
> Archaeological Assistant — Historic Section
> 
> Illinois State Archaeological Survey
> Prairie Research Institute
> University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
> 209 Nuclear Physics Lab, MC-571
> 23 East Stadium Drive
> Champaign, IL 61820
> 
> 217.300.3060
> [log in to unmask]
> 
> 
> 
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