Cream Pitchers

“Lemon or milk?” is still the question when the English serve tea. When tea was first introduced to England from China in the early 1600s, it was served plain. A French woman introduced the custom of drinking tea with milk in 1680. It is said that she wanted to cool the tea with milk to protect her fragile teacups. Silversmiths designed new utensils to serve the milk and sugar. The first silver cream pitchers were made in England about 1725. Early pitchers were hammered (or raised) from a flat sheet of silver and had no seams. The rim and lip were added to the hammered body.