Cup plate

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section needs to be wikified to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please help improve this article with relevant internal links. (November 2007)

Cup plates are coasters for tea cups which came into common use during the first half of the nineteenth century in the United States. They were used to protect furniture from tea cups by providing a coaster for the cup. The tea was often too hot and was poured into the saucer to cool it before consumption (the cups at the time had no handles, so to drink the tea from saucers required two hands which made it necessary to put down the cup). Cup plates provided a spot to put the cup and were scattered about the parlor during tea parties. They were produced in a variety of designs from flint glass, the only glass produced by early American glass factories. They are a uniquely American invention for American tea parties as proper manners in England and the European continent forbade slurping of cooled tea from the tea saucers. European glass factories (Baccarat, Val St. Lambert) however did produce cup plates for the American market but the great majority were of American manufacture. Initial cup plates were made by blowing the glass into the appropriate size and depth (three to four inches diameter, 3/8 to 1/2 inch depth) Later cup plates were produced in pressed glass forms with myriad designs in flint glass, and later in soda glass, before the decline in popularity of tea parties after the Civil War era ended demand for them. Image:RL 020 COBALT UNIQUE.JPG Template:Early American Glass