Records from America from the 17th and early 18th centuries bear testament to the fact that its residents were drinking tea from Chinese bowls by 1696. Ceramics may first have travelled from the Orient with the Spanish and then certainly with the Dutch. An inventory of items belonging to a Long Island widow includes: “Three East India Cups, three East India dishes, three Cheenie pots, one Cheenie pot bound in silver, and thirty nine pieces of odd small china ware.” And in 1718, American resident Isaac Caillowell owned “Five china dishes, twelve china plates, 2 china mugs, a china teapot, two china bowls, 4 china cups and saucers and one china spoon dish.”
In the early days of the porcelain trade with China, the flow of ideas had travelled from East to West. But once the secret for porcelain manufacture was discovered in 1709 in Germany, and the European potteries started making their own porcelain tea wares, Western ideas began to flow East and influenced the designs of the Chinese potters. So we find teapots made in China in the 18th century that might have been made at the factories of Meissen, Sevres, or Wedgwood. It is also interesting that, once Chinese porcelains and other ceramics reached their Western destinations, potters sometimes felt the need to embellish them, not just by adding silver spout covers, chains, and lids, but by painting over the Chinese decoration with coloured enamels or gilding. This may have been to enhance the price they might fetch, or to replace a missing or broken piece from a set by painting all the pieces, including the replacement, with the same additional design and colours.
