McCarthy’s Brown Betty. Photo by Anne O’Connor

One of my earliest memories is my grandmother, the granddaughter of the main character in this novel, making me a cup of tea with milk and sugar to go with two slices of buttered toast. This marvelous repast even appeared when she babysat me at my parents’ house, although I’m quite sure a box of Red Rose tea never made it into my mother’s cabinets. After I photographed this teapot that belongs to Jack and Kathy McCarthy, we sat down to a mug of Barry’s Tea.

An Irish immigrant, Thomas White from Kilkenny, was a Freemason and part of the 1773 Boston Tea Party, when protesters dumped 92,000 pounds of tea in Boston Harbor. He then fought in the American Revolution and was the father of 21 children with one wife.

The origin of the simple, round Brown Betty style teapots made of clay has been lost to time.