This large cup and saucer were used as an advertising piece for Narberth Merchant Thomas Lewis. It was donated by Bridget Lee-Davies (1915 - 2009), a long-time supporter of Narberth Museum. This set was made by Burgess and Leigh potteries, who were manufacturers of earthenware. Burgess and Leigh, founded under the name of Hulme and Booth, occupied the Central Pottery in Burslem, Staffordshire from 1862 to 1867. 

In 1867 they took the earthenware department of Hill Pottery and in 1899 moved to the Middleport Works, a seven-oven factory by the Trent and Mersey Canal. During the 20th century they became known as ‘Burleigh’ and renowned ceramicist Charlotte Rhead worked for the company between 1926 and 1931. The stamp to the rear of these objects classes them as ‘Semi Porcelain’ and they are part of the company’s Erie blue design. They bear what is known as the printed globe mark with ‘Burslem’ stamped beneath, which, according to Geoffrey Godden’s Encyclopaedia of British Pottery and Porcelain Marks (1964) was in use between 1906 and 1912. An advertisement on The Welshman Almanac from December 1909 stated, “Thomas Lewis, Tea & Coffee Merchant, High Street, Narberth – Our Teas and Coffees retain their Popularity ‘Drinke and Enjoye them’.” 

Tea rose in importance with the Temperance Movement in the 19th century and items such as this show the importance of tea and cocoa in the anti-alcohol stance. In 1882 tea-loving Prime Minister William Gladstone told Parliament “The domestic use of tea as a powerful champion able to encounter alcoholic drink in a fair field and throw it a fair fight.” The Dutch started to import tea in the 16th century – it spread from there to western Europe but remained a drink for the wealthy. Catherine of Braganza, wife of Charles II, made it fashionable in the UK. The East India Company seized on this and began to import tea into Britain, shipping it from Java. The East India Company (founded in 1600 and who had begun using and transporting enslaved people in Asia and the Atlantic in the early 1600s) had the monopoly on all trade from the East. 

When tea came into Britain, their ships transported it and by the 18th century tea had replaced spices and silk as their most important cargo. By 1760 they were carrying 4.5 million tons a year into Britain. It had a high tax due in part to smuggling and tea was often adulterated with substances such as sheep dung to give it the necessary colour. William Pitt the Younger reduced the tax on tea in the 1784 Commutation Act, acting on advice of Richard Twining of Twining’s Tea Company (who were importing through the East India Company who had gained control of large parts of the Indian sub-continent where they initiated the beginnings of the British Raj and Hong Kong) making legal tea affordable. The trade in tea helped to strengthen and promote British Imperialism in Asia. 

Increase in popularity was also in a major part to sugar. Increase in sugar consumption led to more tea and increased the enslavement of African people multi-fold in the West Indies. By 1760s the annual duties on sugar imports were enough to maintain all the ships in the navy – a navy that helped to secure British dominance overseas. So, the increase of trading in enslaved people grew. Due to the increase in plantation agriculture, tea drinking also changed the economy and ecology of areas of India and Ceylon (Sri Lanka).