Teapot 1719 - 1720

This is a silver teapot made by Thomas Folkingham in England, sometime in the first decades of the 18th century. The form of this teapot speaks to the social history of its time. Tea drinking was becoming increasingly popular in England, and with it came new social rituals and specialized objects like this one. But tea was also a commodity tied to the expansion of the British Empire. Consider the East India Company's role in importing tea from China and India, and the labor practices involved in its cultivation and trade. A seemingly simple object like this teapot then becomes a window onto larger issues of colonialism, trade, and social class. Historians use a variety of sources to understand the cultural significance of objects like this, including trade records, social histories, and studies of material culture. These help us to understand the complex social and economic forces that shaped the world in which this teapot was made and used.