The Teapot in Victoria: Connections in Time

The teabag may be ubiquitous in contemporary life, but for most of the period from 1840 tea was brewed in a teapot, or in a billy over the fire. Almost every family owned a teapot, and often they owned several, for Victorians were prodigious tea drinkers. So much so, that in 1883 visiting author Richard Twopeny described tea as the ‘national beverage’. In this lecture Margaret Anderson explores the history of tea drinking in Victoria, through the lens of the humble teapot. From the solitary ‘cuppa’ to lavish afternoon teas, Australians celebrated, consoled, and forged social connections around the tea table, in family rituals that reached form one generation to the next.