Ubiquitous Ingenious: Tea Set

Tea Set
Stacey Karayannis
3166047

Anastasia and Charlie like many other European immigrants who landed in Australia, sought out for a better way of life. One away from poverty and a country devastated by war. Most immigrants intended to travel to Australia to earn easy money and to return overseas to help their families. However, like most Greek and Italian immigrants of that time, they never returned to their homeland.

It was the year 1957. Charlie often sat at the back shed of the house which was external to the rest of the house. The shed, better known in later years as the “kitchen”, due to the simple fact of the shed having a sink and shelves, lay amongst vegetables patches and a wild jungle of untamed plants. Anastasia frequently told how she would catch Charlie often sitting in the corner on a pile of potato sacks, carefully rolling his tobacco and pursing together the cigarette paper between his lips as though it was an intimate art form. On this particular day he took the liberty of cleaning out the old shed. Every action performed by Charlie was powerful and graphical. He heaved the potato sacks over his shoulders and out the door of the shed. He broke down old shelves which had become victim to termites and removed a torn, discoloured layer of carpet from the bottom of the shed. The old carpet revealed what looked like a trap door. Made from set concrete, with a large padlock holding it shut, its discovery uncovered somewhat of a mystery to Charlie. For at that stage of his life, nothing seemed to bare much excitement.

Day after day Charlie would return from a hard days work and retire to the back shed. He sat amongst the rolled back carpet, and termite invested wood with a metal chisel and hammer bashing away at the padlock with some hope of it busting open. Charlie, like a little child, allowed his imagination to lead him to believe that hundreds of dollars could be hidden below the floor of the shed. He finally cracked the padlock open, and cautiously opened the trap door, peering inside in anticipation. Amongst the cobwebs, insects, dust and foul smell was a wooden crate. My grandfather reached in dusting off the cobwebs as he lent in further and pulled out the box. He pulled apart the moulding wood to discover a ball of black cotton. He ripped apart the layers of material to reveal a silver teapot, milk jug and sugar pot. The set was dark blue and rusty red in colour and in clear need of polishing. The tea set intrigued Charlie, with it's stark geometric shape and art deco sleek lines.

After World War I ended in 1919, life had changed drastically. The world looked to Paris for leadership in fashion and design, and France's largest city delivered. Art Deco was born in 1925 and had it’s greatest impact on Australia in the 1930’s. The highly adaptable Art Deco style was applied not only to exclusive items of jewellery, furniture and fashion affordable by the wealthy few, but also to mass produced plastics, tableware and silverware which were well within the reach of ordinary Australian families. Its introduction occurred concurrently with massive changes in technology that saw the introduction of new materials and manufacturing techniques that allowed goods and items to become available to the masses. The silver tea set, which displays clearly the emphasized geometric shapes of that period was made in Australia around the 1930’s by a company by the name Crusader Plate Company, originating in Sydney in 1939.

The house in Hawthorn that Charlie purchased was originally used to house miners. The houses in the street were all very similar; small and narrow with many small rooms. The miner’s who lived in the house before Charlie wouldn’t have been able to afford such a tea set, it was probably owned by the head of the mining housing commission.

Regardless of the tea set’s actual value, the tea set to Charlie was priceless. As soon as Charlie placed his hands on the silver bit of treasure, he immediately rushed inside to share his discovery with Anastasia. His grin stretched across his face as they both enjoyed their findings. Not only was the tea set the first bit of silverware Charlie ever owned, but it represented a new life. Charlie finding that crate was like cracking open a fresh start. From beyond a dirty dusty wooden box, he saw a shiny silver token. He grew up deprived and poor, but could see a glimmer of hope coming to Australia and starting a new. They polished the tea set and left it as the central mantelpiece in their new home. It was their prize possession. They refrained from using the tea set as they assumed it was of great monetary value. However, despite their financial struggles of that time, they refused to trade in the tea set.

Years later Charlie and Anastasia's grandchildren would often find themselves in the living room playing their usual imaginary games. On one occasion, their granddaughter pulled along a chair from Anastasia's bedroom and placed it underneath the fireplace. She climbed up onto the chair and reached forward to grab the shiny tea pot above her. Its gleaming surface and form was what she believed perfect for the tea party below the fireplace. She dragged the tea set behind her and carefully climbed down the chair, and began filling it with the juice. Anastasia later entered the living room to find her grandchild’s dirty, sticky fingers all over the tea set. She immediately removed her from the floor and snatched the tea pot from her hands, with no regard for her grandchild. From that very point, her grandchildren learned the importance of the tea set.

40 years after my Charlie’s discovery they felt it was time to pass across an important part of their family’s history in Australia. It was their family’s heirloom and Charlie and Anastasia felt they had expressed its importance enough over the years, that their children would respect its history and significance in their possession of the set. The tea set was the first art deco collectable that their first child Mary had. It inspired her to buy a house of that time period, in a south-eastern suburb in Melbourne. Mary and her husband Andrew decorated the rest of the house in that period style. It stands in the centre of their fireplace in the central living room. It’s importance isn’t as strong as it was to Charlie and Anastasia, yet they understand it’s worth and place in their families history.