In most instances it was the hot water kettle that sat upon a spirit lamp or burner rather than a teapot. Kettles were usually related to the form of contemporary teapots, but differed in having a swing handle on top and a large, rather flat base that could be placed over the flame. Advertisements mention teakettles of copper, pewter, brass, and silver, some "with lamps and stands."[70] The actual making of tea was part of the ceremony and was usually done by the hostess at the tea table. This necessitated a ready supply of boiling water close at hand to properly infuse the tea and, as Ferdinand Bayard reported, it also "weakens the tea or serves to clean up the cups."[71] Thus, the kettle and burner on their own individual table or stand were placed within easy reach of the tea table. According to 18th-century pictures the kettle was an important part of the tea setting, but it seldom appeared on the tea table. Special stands for kettles generally were made in the same form as the tea tables, though smaller in scale (fig. 14). The square stands often had a slide on which to place the teapot when the hot water was poured into it. Both pictures and advertisements reveal that by the 1770's the tea urn was a new form appearing at teatime in place of the hot water kettle. Contrary to its name, the tea urn seldom held tea. These large silver or silver-plated vessels, some of which looked like vases with domed covers, usually had two handles on the shoulders and a spout with a tap in the front near the bottom. "Ponty pool, japanned, crimson, and gold-striped Roman tea urns" imported from Europe were among the fashionable teawares advertised at the end of the 18th century.[72] The urn might be placed on a stand of its own near the table or on the tray or table in the midst of the other equipage as it is in the painting titled _The Honeymoon_ (fig. 9). Wherever placed, it signified the newest mode in teatime furnishings. One Baltimorean, O. H. Williams, in a letter dated April 12, 1786, to a close friend, enthusiastically explained that "Tea & Coffee Urns plated (mine are but partially plated and are extremely neat) are the genteelest things of the sort used now at any House & tables inferior to the first fortunes."[73] [Illustration: Figure 22.--The sign of "The Tea Canister and Two Sugar Loaves" used by a New York grocer and confectioner in the 1770's. Other "tea" motifs for shop signs in the 18th century included "The Teapot," used by a Philadelphia goldsmith in 1757, and "The Tea Kettle and Stand," which marked the shop of a Charleston jeweller in 1766.]