| tory of tea kettles extends from Europe to the New | | | | Intercultural Object, Laurier Turgeon explains how |
| World. Written records of tea kettles made of | | | | Native Americans brewed tea in vessels made of |
| copper have been discovered from the sixteenth | | | | wood before they gained exposure to the concept |
| century. Since the Renaissance, the demand for | | | | of a copper tea kettle through cultural contact with |
| copper has decreased in North America in developed | | | | Europeans. Turgeon references a contract signed in |
| countries like the United States. In many parts of the | | | | Bordeaux in which Micheau de Hoyarsabal, the captain |
| globe, people still use copper pots for tea service in | | | | of a ship from Saint Jean-de-Luz, commissioned 100 |
| private homes and in dining establishments. | | | | red copper tea vessels in 1584. |
| In the 1400s and 1500s, copper lost its value in | | | | In the U.S., tea containers are made from a variety |
| Europe as coin makers focused on gold and silver | | | | of materials. For instance, the Disney Princess kitchen |
| coin production. Copper production in the 1500s | | | | play set includes a tea pot made of pink and blue |
| included making cooking pots, basins, trays, | | | | plastic. While we have come a long way since |
| candlesticks, and cauldrons for beer breweries. As | | | | widespread importation of copper products for |
| people increasingly populated North American and | | | | American kitchens, the cultural concept of the tea |
| African colonies, the demand for domestic and | | | | vessel thrives in our culture. Contemporary people |
| industrial copper climbed. The settlements of the New | | | | enjoy drinking tea, and some tea veterans cling to |
| World consumed copper products used in cooking | | | | the centuries-old tradition of brewing tea in a metal |
| and dining. | | | | pot. |
| In The Tale of the Kettle: Odyssey of an | | | | |
