Things I’ve Always Wondered About: Cooling-Saucer Edition
According to legend, George Washington explained the existence of the Senate with the metaphor of pouring coffee into a saucer to cool it. Popular passions holding sway in the House would be poured into the senatorial saucer to cool so that legislation would be tempered with the caution and wisdom of the country’s elite.
Okay, so I get the tenor of the metaphor, but the vehicle baffles me. How is this supposed to work exactly? You pour the coffee or tea out of your cup onto the saucer. Hmmm…already foreseeing problems. Ever tried to pour just a little bit of liquid from a full cup without a spout? Well, anyway, imagine you pull that off. Then what? You’ve got a saucer full of drink. Now where do you put the cup? Okay, say you have two saucers. You put the cup down on saucer no. 2, the dry one.
Time for a drink! But, well, er…the beverage—now admittedly cooler—is in a shallow pool on saucer no. 1. Seems like it might be difficult to pick up the saucer and bring it slowly to your lips for a sip without spillage. And surely President Washington will be horrified if you lean over and stick your face in the saucer. This is highly awkward. Moreover, Rule #96 of Washington’s forbidding Rules of Civility & Decent Behaviour in Company and Conversation: a Book of Etiquette is clearly analogous here:
96th It’s unbecoming to Stoop much to ones Meat[.] Keep your Fingers clean & when foul wipe them on a Corner of your Table Napkin.
But say the father of our country is understanding of this predicament, and the bend-over maneuver is sanctioned by the ROCDB in these narrow circumstances. What’s the plan now? Slurp? Oh no. Definitely not. Rule #99:
99th Drink not too leisurely nor yet too hastily. Before and after Drinking wipe your Lips breath not then or Ever with too Great a Noise, for its uncivil [sic].
Lap it up with your tongue? Not while Rule #16 is in effect:
16th Do not Puff up the Cheeks, Loll not out the tongue rub the Hands, or beard, thrust out the lips, or bite them or keep the Lips too open or too Close. [sic]
Loll not out the tongue, you see. We’re swiftly running out of options here, Mr. President. Well, it turns out, according to the Memorial Hall Museum Online, there was a technological solution: deep saucers.
In the 1770′s and 1780′s it became fashionable to drink tea from the saucer, perhaps to allow the tea to cool. One consistent characteristic of tea wares at that time was the deep saucer, borrowed from China. Later in the century, cup plates became part of the tea set and allowed the tea drinker to “park” her cup on the small cup plate while she sipped tea from the saucer….
And there you have it. Deep saucer illustrated below. I’m still not sure how you’re going to negotiate the pouring from the cup to the saucer…unless you bypass the cup altogether and pour directly from the pot into the saucer. In which case: why the cup? But there are limits to one’s curiosity.
Cup and saucer, circa 1725
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My grandparents used to “saucer” their coffee. They had another name for it than “saucering” , however. I can’t remember what they called it, and it has been driving me a little crazy lately trying to. Can you remember another name used for this time honored process ? Or can you suggest a way I can find out on the web ?
Jim- I bought a tea cup saucer at an antique mall last week. At one time it was my understanding that these saucers were made specifically to cool tea. Is this a myth perhaps? I don’t know. It is small and made of pressed glass and said to be made in the 1700′s. I am going to continue research into this piece, but otherwise, it only cost a dollar.