Mote Spoon Etiquette and History

What have we here? A Georgian Era Tea Bowl and Tea Cup. – The tea bowl and tea cup are based on early Chinese tea cups and bowls with no handles, however it is a bit larger. This Georgian era cup is shown with 2 period mote spoons and Georgian “tea tongs” or sugar tongs, to better show the size.

The Georgian tea-equipage usually included a tea-strainer or mote-skimmer, mote being the old English word for a minute particle of foreign matter in food or drink. This dainty little tool was like a long-handled spoon. The barb or point on its slender stem was used for clearing the perforations at the base of the tea-pot spout, and the bowl, patterned with perforations, for skimming the infusion in the cup.

The London Gazette for 1697 refers to “long or strainer tea-spoons with narrow pointed handles.” They were known as “long tea spoons” throughout Queen Anne's reign.

The bowl had rat-tail strengthening and circular perforations, pierced bowls. Saw-pierced bowls, lacking the rat-tail, were of Georgian origin. Early examples were sold en suite with tea-spoons.

It has been suggested that the contemporary tea-pot spout was usually too boldly curved for the spear-topped stem to be thrust down it. This suggestion overlooks the fact that the juncture of spout and body was protected by a perforated tea-leaf strainer. At that period, according to John Worlidge and other contemporary writers, the tea leaves were dried whole.

After two or three minutes infusion in the pot “the leaves spread out to their former breadth and shape” and were liable to block up the perforations, obstructing the flow of tea into the spout. The spear-knop of the mote-skimmer was used to remove these from inside the perforations.

Another widespread misapprehension concerns the perforations in the bowl of the mote-skimmer. Some collectors consider these too large to collect tea dust. In this connection it must be remembered that Georgian tea contained all the foreign matter now extracted by mechanical means. Such as floated on the cup of tea could be removed in the skimmer bowl. The skimming was sometimes done by the “tea-blender”, usually the most presentable house-maid or parlour-maid, who had charge of the tea-table equipage, preparing the tea and handing a cup to each guest and member of the family. On less formal occasions, however, mote-skimming was each individual’s own concern. Giant specimens usually bear George III hallmarks and were designed for use with contemporary tea-urns.

Some collectors of “strainer spoons” express their belief that they were used in France as snail-spoons, shellfish-spoons and absinthe-spoons. While somewhat resembling the mote-skimmer, such spoons show certain dissimilarities of design in keeping with their different purposes. — From, “1500- 1820 Three Centuries of English Domestic Silver,” Bernard & Therle Hughes, 1968

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