Food service: Tea cozy belonging to P. T. Barnum
1860 – 1885 (Date manufactured/created)
Textile/Personal Artifact
11 in H
X
14 in W
X
3.75 in D
This bright red needlework tea cozy with its intricately beaded leaves looks almost new, its color is so rich! Tea cozies were thick covers, usually padded or quilted, designed to cover and insulate teapots to keep the tea warm. Today that might seem “over the top,” but before the days of central heating, houses were often cold and drafty. This tea cozy was used in the Barnum household, but not in the kitchen. A tea cozy of this quality would have been used in the parlor when guests came to tea. It is larger than usual, and is stitched in wool and trimmed with a silk cord finished with tassels; it is hand-made, not a commercially manufactured object. Although this rich red was a very popular color in wool needlework of the 1860s, the dense patterning of leaves suggests a later date, possibly the 1880s. Since tea cozies were very popular in the British Isles, it may have been a gift from one of Barnum’s many English business associates, or possibly made or purchased by his second wife, Nancy, who was English. Perhaps it was a house warming gift from Nancy's relatives, when she and her husband built their last home, Marina, in the late 1880s.
A Gift of the Discovery Museum, Bridgeport, Connecticut
2003.009.079