The use of tea became common among the well-to-do and fashionable classes from 1660 to 1680. Every house had a special tea-room fitted up, and even the burghers had their tea-offices, or drank tea in the front room or _voorhuis_; for the social tea always took place in the front part of the house. The tea-room was furnished like a reception-room, the important pieces of furniture being the tea-buffet and the tea-table. “A corner tea-buffet of costly wood” is mentioned in the inventory of Develstein, while other inventories mention “properly inlaid Chinese lacquered tea-tables mounted with silver and mother-of-pearl,” also fir-wood and oak tables and tables with drop leaves. On the tea-table the porcelain was displayed. This was bordered with gold or silver, or was a blue Chinese or a coloured Japanese set with the “waffle-mark,” or the six marks of the “Long Eliza,” “the cuckoo out of the house” and “the cuckoo into the house,” and all kinds of red and gold, ribbed or plain porcelain. A complete tea-set included large and small teapots, large and small cups with and without covers, sugar basins, pastry dishes with a small golden fork, and saffron pots. These little pots and dishes were of different shapes; and we should note that there were a double set of teapots—one in which the tea was drawn and the other into which it was poured, to be poured out into the cups in turn. Sometimes these pots were curiously shaped with open or basket sides, the spout formed like the head of a bird or animal, while others carried inscriptions or coats-of-arms, and the top of the lid bore some grotesque fowl, bird or ornament. Square teapots profusely decorated with gold paint were very costly. The teacups were also gaily decorated. An exhibition in Delft in 1863 showed thirty famous designs of cups and saucers. If we were to enter a fashionable tea-room of the seventeenth century, we should find ourselves in the front of the house in a room furnished according to the rank and means of the proprietor. Rich or poor, it is always exquisitely clean. As carpets and rugs are not common, the floor is covered with bright mats, and the walls are either whitewashed, or encased in blue and white tiles. Upon them hang pictures, more or less valuable. The round table and the chairs are of _sacredaan_ wood, and the latter are furnished with cushions of Utrecht velvet. The chimney-piece is ornamented with Chinese knickknacks that will interest the visitor for several hours, and on either side of it are two oak cupboards inlaid with ebony. Facing the chimney stands the china-cabinet with its fragile treasures, the _vrouw’s_ idol, the object of her tenderest care.