. Bulletin - United States National Museum. Science. ber of chairs available, and Barbe-Marbois noted that at American tea parties "people change seats, some go, others ; The written and visual materials offer little in the way of evidence to suggest that in general men stood and women sat during teatime. In fact, places at the tea table were taken by both sexes, even at formal tea parties such as the one de- picted in The Assembly at Wanstead House. A less formal but more usual tea scene is the subject of another Hogarth painting. The Wollaston Family, now in the Leicester Art
. Bulletin - United States National Museum. Science. ber of chairs available, and Barbe-Marbois noted that at American tea parties "people change seats, some go, others ; The written and visual materials offer little in the way of evidence to suggest that in general men stood and women sat during teatime. In fact, places at the tea table were taken by both sexes, even at formal tea parties such as the one de- picted in The Assembly at Wanstead House. A less formal but more usual tea scene is the subject of another Hogarth painting. The Wollaston Family, now in the Leicester Art Gallery, England. The afternoon gathering has divided into two groups, one playing cards, the other drinking tea. An atmos- phere of ease and comfort surrounds the party. The men and women seated at the card table are dis- cussing the hand just played, while the women seated about the square tea table in front of the fireplace are engaged in conversation. A man listens as he stands and stirs his tea. Each drinker holds a saucer with a cup filled from the teapot on a square tile or stand in the center of the table. One woman is returning her cup, turned upside down on the saucer, to the table. More about this particular habit later. The same pleasant social atmosphere seen in Eng- lish paintings seems to have surrounded teatime in America, as the previously cited entries in Nancy Shippen's journal book suggest. Her entry for Janu- ary 18, 1784,^' supplies a description that almost matches The Wollaston Family: A stormy day, alone till the afternoon; & then was honor'd with the Company of M'Jones (a gentleman lately from Europe) M' Du Ponceau, & M' Hollingsworth at Tea—We convers'd on a variety of subjects & play"" at whist, upon the whole spent an agreable Even* ." Tea was not only a beverage of courtship: it also was associated with marriage. Both Peter Kalm, in 1750, and Moreau de .St. Mery, in the 1790's, report the Philadelphia custom of expressi
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