Etched Print, ink on paper, one of a selection produced by Daniel Marot, (1661 – 1752), architect and decorative designer whose clients included William of Orange (William III of England) Reproduced from Das Ornamentwork des Daniel Marot in 264 Lichtdrucken, NACHGEBILDET, Berlin Ernst Wasmuth 1892, British Library  “Hey, can you see me? I‘m up here. We’re all up here, no idea why but we’re here. Such a weird place. I just don’t understand. How will they pour tea in to me up here? We got let out this morning. Packed and stacked into each other in the dark for ages and ages, permanently sick as ..read more

Two ladies and an officer seated at tea, Oil on canvas, circa 1715. Thought to be painted in Britain, artist unknown, formerly attributed to the Dutch artist Nicolaes Verkolje (1673-1746). © Victoria &Albert Museum, London.  “Today our table is empty except for two dishes of lump sugar. I suppose they need it because they make the tea so badly. Everyone at home knows you never use boiling water on green tea. The clay pot hates the way he is used with different types of tea. Apparently he’s the only tea pot here, and he endlessly cries how he’s lost all his friends, each of whom used to nur ..read more

DISPOSABLE PAPER CUP Cup, composite paper and plastic coating, origin unknown, 2019 mass produced.“How can you do this to me? Fill me with a hot liquid that screams how much it hates being contained and cradled in my form. A form that renders me unsuitable to return to the earth.  You then scream at me, reviled for cluttering the highways and byways of your lives. “A little bag of indeterminable contents attached to a string with a cardboard label was flung into my body– I can tell you the contents of that bag started to complain immediately, about everything. He shrieked at the hot water that ..read more

  A FOREIGNER TO THESE SHORES Breakfast Cup and Saucer, porcelain, transfer-decorated, Sarreguemines factory, France, circa 1900 – 1920  “You English, you think you know everything to do with tea. And yet the very word that describes my pattern should give it away,  Chinoiserie. A French word adopted by you to describe the European view of the imaginary world of China. Despite adopting the drink of China as your own, it is the French aesthetic, unsurprisingly, that can accurately describe a sensibility beyond the understanding of you rost-bifs. “Look at my luscious willow blooms drooping over ..read more

The Backbone of England   THE MUG  Earthenware mug with white glaze, England circa 2017, mass produced.  “I’m good honest and upright, no flim-flam about me – you get what you see. “Nothing better than my cargo; drop in my teabag, add milk, loads of sugar – I can take it – I’m the champion of the worker, your friend when you need to be lifted from the toils of your labours. “OK, so he’s cheap, this tea bag – but he’s like me – no nonsense, straightforward, reliable, the  20th century English worker, we made this country. “Just rinse me out and fill me up again – nothing is too much for me to p ..read more