Tea Kettle

Typical of Pennsylvania tea kettles which developed as a distinctive regional form, this kettle by Matthias Babb is more refined than others made in the Reading area.   

Kettles of this type in varying sizes were used for keeping hot water on the fire available for the service of tea.  They were made of copper, prized for its excellent conductivity of heat.  Although kettles like this example would not have been placed upon the tea table, they were still a vital tool, and decorative as well as utilitarian. Copper tea kettles were an ambitious project for the coppersmith and often became a signature form to display his skills to prospective customers.

 Matthias Babb was part of a large family of coppersmiths and tinsmiths working in the Reading area in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.  He appears in Reading tax records from 1779 to 1781 and in 1784 and 1785 as a tinsmith, probably working with John R. Babb and Conrad Babb (active c. 1779-1812).  By 1796 he had opened his own coppersmith shop in Reading where he advertised that he made and repaired “stills, wash kettles, tea kettles, and all sorts of copperware” including “Kopper tea kettles for store keepers.”  The Babb family were talented artisans and respected master craftsmen.  Several members also held public offices and served in the post Revolutionary militia and the War of 1812.