Good news: I thought I procrastinated on this for a year, but I only took half a year to read this! Honestly, it should have taken much less time, given that the subject matter is lighter than my other Japanese books, but I pretty much just left the book alone until quarantine, where I finished half the book and gained enough momentum to finish the rest.

Video version, if you’d prefer to watch that:

If you rather read my summary, scroll on!

Book Summary

Although the title says that it’s all about the history of teacups, the book also talks about the history of tea in England (and broader aspects of English history, when needed), since the use of teacup is tied to the drinking of tea. Because of that, Chapter 1 starts with the introduction of tea culture to the West. We learn that teaware was imported to England alongside tea, and the aristocracy would have drunk from ‘tea bowls’. The rest of the chapter deals with the history of tea as it becomes popular, including the establishment of shops like Twinings.

Chapter 2 is titled “The birth of England’s Porcelain Industry (英国産陶磁器産業の誕生)” and it starts with the rise of tea gardens. As tea becomes popular as a healthy beverage, English porcelain appears. The book claims that Lord Cumberland supported Chelsea Porcelain financially. It’s main rival was Bow Porcelain, which was founded in 1747. The book talks Wedgewood before it goes on to discuss how Jasperware was born from the Neoclassical wave. There is a quick digression to the issue of taxes and the Boston Tea Party, and then we talk about the birth of bone china and how Spode the Second carried on his father’s worth to develop bone china.

Now that we’re in the realm of pottery, we move on to Chapter 3, which is about the rise in popularity for Blue & White. It starts with the Prince Regent (George the Fourth before he became king) and how his love for Imari made it popular. There are some lovely pictures of Imari-inspired tea cups (this book is full of pictures, which is one reason why I bought it) and then we talk about blue and white porcelain, which also became popular about this time. It starts in 1816, when Spode porcelain announced a “blue Italian” tea set, which was also influenced by Imari-pattern tea sets. In the 1780s, “Yellow Pattern” pieces, inspired by scenes of China, became a long-selling hit product. This pattern allowed the British to experience foreign lands without leaving home. The chapter ends with a brief history of developments in the tea trade and the start of tea cultivation in the British colonies.

The next two chapters focus on certain segments of people in the Victorian era. Chapter 4 is on Afternoon Tea in the upper classes and it starts with the beginning of Queen Victoria’s reign. I learnt about the Exotic Bird pattern from Minton, which the Queen bought in the year of her marriage. Apparently, she said that Minton had the world’s most beautiful bone china. From there, we go into the cultivation of tea in Assam and India, and then the rise of afternoon tea.

The book follows the story that afternoon tea was invented by the Duchess of Bedford at Woburn Abbey but what caught my eye was the information about the tea sets used. The book says that the aesthetics of the tea set wasn’t the only important thing – conversation was important too (something that I’ve heard from my finishing school). I also learnt that afternoon tea was originally served buffet style, and that because the porcelain used for tea was precious, only high-ranking servants were allowed to wash it. The book also mentions that because flowers weren’t as readily available as they are now, flower designs on teacups were popular because they helped to make up for the lack of fresh flowers, especially during the winter months.

The chapter ends with the Great Exhibition organised by Prince Albert, but my favourite part was actually the columns about teacup handles. I finally learnt some of the names for the various handles: ring handle, square handle, pinched handle (ピンチト・ハンドル), angular handle, broken loop handle, London handle, and Old English handle. There isn’t much information apart from the name and a picture of the handle, so I will have to look deeper to find out more about the history behind his part of the teacup.

We move on to the middle and working class in Chapter 5, learning about how they chose lightly less luxurious teacups not just because they were expensive, but also to match the decor that they had at home. There is a pretty long passage about tea clippers, the impact of Prince Albert’s death, and the teetotal movement. And then we get into high tea. I’ve heard the explanation that the name “high tea” came from the height of the table, but the book also offers a second theory: that the name came from the fact that this meal was high in calories. The chapter ends with a column on Mrs Beeton.

The last two chapters are on teacups and changes in lifestyle. Chapter 6 is titled “the new teacups that are closely tied to lifestyle (生活に密着した新しいティーカップ)” and we learn about the rise of nursery tea and fortune telling with tea leaves. I finally learnt what the name of two-handle teacups are: Loving Cups. Apparently they were first made for sick people (who need two hands to hold up their tea), and then they became for lovers to share the tea. The rest of the book looks at two trends that influenced teacup designs – the arts and craft movement and Japonisme.

Finally, we reach the last chapter: Chapter 7. It’s called “The future of teacups and Black Tea” and one of the pictures here was responsible for a huge teacup purchase (that I will talk about when I’m home and can finally open the box). We see that the rise of personalistion (or “my cup”) leads to more and more limited edition designs and there’s a great section on Art Deco and Art Nouveau cups. Personally, I love the Art Nouveau cups more because of the nature-inspired designs, but I also really love the teacups with flower and butterfly handles! The last section is on the future of teacups, but my eye was drawn towards the column on teacups in Miss Marple!

I have mentioned it a little in my very long summary, but there are columns at the end of each chapter! I really enjoyed the information about tea accessories and afternoon tea in various books – books mentioned are Peter Rabbit, Anne of Green Gables, and Miss Marple! One column that I particularly enjoyed (apart from the literary ones) was the one on how the shape of a teacup affects the taste of the tea. Apparently, cups that are wide and shallow don’t require you to tilt the cup as high, which means that it takes slightly longer for you to swallow the tea, giving you more time to feel its astringency (and the tea cools faster in the cup as well). On the other hand, taller teacups mean you have to tilt the cup higher to drink it, meaning that it hits your throat faster and you don’t notice the astringency (or the other flavour notes) as much. So what type of tea you drink with each cup also depends on what parts of the tea you want to emphasise.

My Thoughts

I hope that this summary had some interesting information! I personally liked the focus on the history of tea and teaware in England – the fact that it’s so specialised means that the book gets to go into details but isn’t too long (like how The Tale of Tea was very, very long). I’ve not seen people talk about the way afternoon tea is portrayed in different books, or give us information on Woburn Abbey and Stoke on Trent. It was a refreshing read and I learnt a lot from it. There were also a few interesting theories introduced, such as an alternative to the history of the name “high tea” and the origin of Earl Grey (the book suggests that there might be some influence from the tea-drinking habits of the Russian aristocracy).

My only concern is that some apocryphal tales aren’t clearly labelled as such. For example, the story behind blue and white porcelain is presented as a Chinese tale when there isn’t much evidence that this is Chinese. You could argue that the book was very careful on this because they don’t state that it’s a fact, but Japanese is a pretty cautious language anyway (a lot of “I think” or “it is said”) so I think a clearer line could be drawn.

There are a lot of lovely pictures in this book, but I wouldn’t recommend buying the book just for the pictures. All the captions are in Japanese, so you would be losing a lot of information about who made which cup (although you could get the year it was made). But if you speak Japanese or if you’re learning, this could be a book you might want to read – it’s not as academic as some of the other works that I’ve introduced and is more accessible.