Jane Austen and Tea

Hello Every One!
Welcome to Tea Cup Tuesday!
Today I will be sharing a tea cup I saw in a very special lady's dining room.

This is the street side of the home where Jane Austen lived her last eight years, and wrote most of her major works. Jane, her mother and sister Cassandra, were given this home to live in by one of their brothers. It is in the Village of Chawton in Hampshire, England. When we arrived, it was morning, there had been a light rain, and the sun was just about to come out. Even now in the 21st century it is a quiet and peaceful place.

My friend and I entered through these gates, both quite excited to be there.

This is the side garden to the house. The open door to the right is the kitchen.
Can you tell how thrilled I am to be going into the home of the incredible author who wrote Emma! I do love that story! But I also love all of Jane Austen's stories.

This would have been Jane's Dining Parlor, complete with fireplace and hob.

Jane was in charge of breakfast, which means that she was in charge of tea as well.

She had the key to the tea chest, which was kept to the left of the fireplace.

A friend gave Jane's mother a Wedgewood breakfast set in 1811. This would have included a tea pot, cups and saucers, sugar bowl and creamer. There may or may not have been a matching china tray. Jane's nephew suggested in his memoirs that Jane was the kind of woman who would want to wash her china herself after using them, instead of trusting them to the help. I can understand why, considering how valuable china was at that time, not to mention the high cost of tea and sugar.

What a lovely simple tea cup!

This silver tea pot belonged to the Austen family, you can see two of their tea cups in the background.

To stand in this room, knowing Jane was here (and as I will share in another post, a much more compelling reason why this room was so significant to me) and made her tea in here, served it to her loved ones....Wow!

Today I leave you with a message from this amazing woman.

As you see above worked by Jane in embroidery floss.

If you would like to join in, please add your name to Mr. Linky below. Please do not sign up unless you have a tea cup to show us.
Please do share one of your cups, how you got it, why you love it, where it came from...
things like that. We love coming to see your beautiful tea cups.