An English Love Affair

Given the legendry love affair between the English and their tea it is not surprising the Imperial Army dragged this decorated Russian tea urn, known as a Samovar, half way round the world with them to Taranaki.

The handsome brass urn, which currently has the tap partially dismantled, is thought to have been used in the Officer’s Mess at the Marsland Hill barracks in New Plymouth during the Taranaki Wars. It has Cyrillic letters stamped on it and is likely to have arrived here from the Crimea, as many troops who came to fight in the Taranaki had seen service there first. It was found abandoned by a carpenter in a New Plymouth attic in the 1890s before eventually making its way into Taranaki Museum in 1970.