Further verification of the types and kinds of equipage used is supplied by archeological investigations of colonial sites. For instance, sherds or fragments of objects dug from or near the site of a dwelling at Marlborough, Virginia, owned and occupied by John Mercer between 1726 and 1768, included a silver teaspoon made about 1735 and two teapot tops--one a pewter lid and the other a Staffordshire salt-glaze cover made about 1745--as well as numerous pieces of blue-and-white Oriental porcelain cups and saucers (fig. 7). Such archeological data provides concrete proof about tea furnishings used in this country. A comparison of sherds from colonial sites with wares used by the English and of English origin indicates that similar types of equipage were to be found upon tea tables in both countries. This also substantiates the already cited American practice of following English modes and manners, a practice Brissot de Warville noted in 1788 when he wrote that in this country "tea forms, as in England, the basis of the principal parties of pleasures."[39] [Illustration: Figure 7.--Fragments of teacups of Chinese export porcelain with blue decoration on white, excavated at the site of John Mercer's dwelling at Marlborough, Virginia, 1726-1768. These sherds, now in the United States National Museum, are from cups similar in shape and decoration to the ones depicted in figures 1 and 5. (_USNM 59.1890, 59.1969, 59.1786; Smithsonian photo 45141-G._)] Tea furnishings, when in use, were to be seen upon rectangular tables with four legs, square-top and circle-top tripods, and Pembroke tables. Such tables were, of course, used for other purposes, but a sampling of 18th-century Boston inventories reveals that in some households all or part of the tea paraphernalia was prominently displayed on the tea table rather than being stored in cupboards or closets. A "Japan'd tea Table & China" and "a Mahog[any] Do. & China," both in the "Great Room," are listed in Mrs. Hannah Pemberton's inventory recorded in Boston in 1758. The inventory of Joseph Blake of Boston recorded in 1746 lists a "tea Table with a Sett of China furniture" in the back room of the house, while in the "closett" in the front room were "6 Tea Cups & Saucers" along with other ceramic wares.[40]