If you look at the Darien map from 1867, you will see in the upper area the home of the “Misses Mather.” In 1840, Deacon Mather left theHomestead to his two unmarried daughters, Phebe and Rana. Rana died in 1880 and Phebe, in her will, gave the Homestead to her niece Elizabeth Lockwood who, in turn, sold it to Stephen Mather’s father, Joseph Wakeman Mather.
A valuation of Homestead antiques conducted in 2017, included Rana Mather’s tea set. It was identified as Staffordshire Pink Lustreware with a footed teapot, nine cups, eleven saucers, two underplates, a footed milk pitcher...and a wastebowl.
Wastebowl? According to Wikipedia, a wastebowl “is one of the com-ponents of a traditional tea set. It was used to empty the cold tea and dregs in tea cups before refilling with hot tea, as there were often tea leaves in the bottom of the cups.”
More recently, upon opening the basement safe we found additional tea items belonging to Rana. These were two spoons initialed RM and a pair of sugar tongs.
Image 1: Rana Mather 1784-1880