Tea Etiquette and Affectations

“Let me suggest, if you have not already done so, putting your little ‘dolls’ cups away in the cabinet and have some of the usual size, as handsome as purse affords. The little cups have gone by as too much of an affectation.”
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  af·fec·ta·tion/ˌafekˈtāSH(ə)n/  noun/ Behavior, speech, or writing that is artificial and designed to impress; Pretension.
Many affectations surround afternoon tea – most notably the 20th century affectation of lifting of one’s pinkie, or pinky finger, when drinking.

Of Fashionable Oriental Pots and Cups — If $15 is too much to pay, then 15 cents will buy a blue and white Japanese teapot holding two cups, and the tea will be just as good, for, like the costly one, it will have a little earthen strainer inside for the tea leaves. The tea bell is a fussy, inconvenient affair, and rather than use it, have some of the Chinese cups with perforated strainers.  

Place the strainer over the cup, put in the tea, and pour on the required amount of boiling water. Set the saucer over the whole and let the tea steep until strong enough to suit. Lift out the strainer by its broad edge, leaving the tea in the cup, clear and free from leaves. But let me suggest, if you have not already done so, putting your little “dolls’’cups away in the cabinet and have some of the usual size, as handsome as purse affords. The little cups have gone by as too much of an affectation. — Los Angeles Herald, 1906

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia