MICHELLE ZAUNER (NARRATOR): Teapots and tea canisters weren’t just collectors’ items, perceived as works of art. They were also functional objects, used for the daily practice of taking tea.

IRIS MOON: Now, initially, like many of the sort of domestic rituals that we associate with politeness in Europe in the eighteenth century, it started off as a courtly form.

ZAUNER: This is because tea itself was a precious, heavily taxed commodity.

MOON: In England, for example, Catherine of Braganza, who was betrothed to King Charles II, she was said to have arrived from Portugal, and the first thing she did after she disembarked on this tumultuous sea voyage was to ask for a cup of tea. The courtiers in England had no idea what tea was, and they offered her a glass of ale, which she promptly refused.

ZAUNER: It takes only one tastemaker to inspire a trend, but how did “taking tea” go from a niche, courtly practice to a hugely popular one?

MOON: Once tea becomes less heavily taxed, every woman thinks that she needs to have a tea set. You see inventories for women taking beverages all over the place, in the boudoir, their toilette. It’s kind of like the idea of the must-have accessory.

ZAUNER: And what happens when a trendy, new accessory becomes popular? More accessories hit the market.

Consumers saw an explosion of tea utensils: different types, sizes, and colors of teapots; a range of tea canisters for holding the leaves; teaspoons, strainers, sugar tongs, and slop bowls for holding used tea leaves.

So, too, emerged new etiquette and rituals.

MOON: This British mythology of holding on to a notion of gentility, right, and respect becomes just totally paramount. To the degree where there are even prints that show a family living on the third-floor garret, one-room apartment, and they still manage to have a tea set.

To me, that’s so interesting in the sense that something that was considered so foreign suddenly becomes at the heart of the domestic, the very definition of home.