Tongs were especially suited for lifting the lumps of sugar from their container to the teacup. During the 18th century both arched and scissor type tongs were used. Instead of points, the latter had dainty flat grips for holding a lump of sugar (fig. 16). The early arched tongs were round in section, as are the pair illustrated in _Tea Party in the Time of George I_ (fig. 5), while tongs made by arching or bending double a flat strip of silver (fig. 17) date from the second half of the 18th century. These articles of tea equipage, variously known as "tongs," "tea tongs," "spring tea tongs," and "sugar tongs," were usually made of silver, though "ivory and wooden tea-tongs" were advertised in 1763.[58] According to the prints and paintings of the period, tongs were placed in or near the sugar container. Teaspoons were also used for sugar, as illustrated in the painting _Susanna Truax_ (fig. 2). Perhaps young Miss Truax is about to indulge in a custom favored by the Dutch population of Albany as reported by Peter Kalm in 1749: "They never put sugar into the cup, but take a small bit of it into their mouths while they drink."[59] [Illustration: Figure 17.--Silver tongs made by William G. Forbes, of New York, about 1790. In the United States National Museum. The engraved decoration of intersecting lines is typical of the neoclassic style. A variant of this motif appears as the painted border on a porcelain cup and saucer of the same period (fig. 12). (_USNM 59.474; Smithsonian photo 45141-A._)] Shallow dishes, such as the one seen in the portrait _Susanna Truax_, and hemispherical bowls were used as containers for sugar. Often called "sugar dishes" or just "sugars," they were available in delftware, glass (fig. 18), and silver as well as in blue-and-white, burnt, enameled, and penciled china. Some containers were sold with covers, and it has been suggested that the saucer-shaped cover of the hemispherical sugar dish or bowl, fashionable in the first half of the 18th century, also served as a spoon tray. However, in the painting _Tea Party in the Time of George I_ (fig. 5) the cover is leaning against the bowl and the spoons are in an oval spoon tray or boat. Another possibility, if the lid was multipurpose, is that it was used as a dish or stand under the teapot to protect the table top. Silver sugar boxes, basins, and plated sugar baskets were other forms used to hold sugar,[60] which, in whatever container, was a commodity important to the Americans. As Moreau de St. Méry noted, they "use great quantities in their tea."[61] [Illustration: Figure 18.--Stiegel-type, cobalt-blue glass sugar dish with cover, made about 1770. (_USNM 38922; Smithsonian photo 42133-D._)]