WITHOUT going quite as far as WC Fields who once declared: "I drink therefore I am," people have always used drinks and drinking for more than just quenching a thirst.

For centuries communal drinking has been a social activity but there was a time that what, where and who you drank with said a great deal more about your place in society than a trip to the pub or café might do today.

A new display at the Millennium Gallery explores the rich tradition of drinking rituals in alehouses, coffee houses and private homes.

Displaying Drink originated from research on ritual and drinking in 18th century England undertaken by Dr Karen Harvey, Senior Lecturer in Cultural History at The University of Sheffield.

"It stemmed from a long-standing interest in what you might call the impolite or the weird or the boisterous," she explains.

"My first research was in erotic writing and the culture associated with it. Men read it in groups which gave it the pretence of being polite society.

"Punch drinking worked in a similar way. In the 18th century there were punch parties which looked very refined from the outside but in actual fact were rather raucous. That had to do with the way it was served and the fact that it was mixed in a bowl and no one knew how strong it was.

"At the same time non-alcoholic drinks like tea were associated with women. The objects are crucial here. On the one hand the open punchbowl and on the other the way tea was drunk from fine porcelain which was pale and fragile and delicate as women were thought to be."

A central issue to emerge was how particular kinds of drinking occasions reinforced relations of power.

Excluding women from the punch parties licensed the cultural and political authority of men.

Women's domestic responsibilities and their more supposedly more genteel natures, on the other hand, were reinforced by powerful associations between women and tea.

To bring the academic research into the museum environment. Dr Harvey secured a £9,000 grant from the university's Knowledge Transfer Opportunities Fund. That funded a collaboration with curator Rachel Conroy which helped place some of the objects in Museum Sheffield's important decorative art collection more firmly in their wider historical, cultural, social, and political contexts.

At the same time, it has given staff at the university unrivalled access to a rich collection of historic objects, and to curatorial expertise at Museums Sheffield.

"Some of the most exciting research moments have been coming into the museum stores and seeing dozens and dozens of ceramics and glass and metalware, only a small percentage of which is on display at any one time," says Dr Harvey.

"The Rockingham Punchbowl is one such special object – it's pink with floral exotic decoration and has never been on display before.

"Another is the Wedgwood Chocolate Cup, an early example of globalisation.

"A lot of exotic drinks and foodstuffs were introduced to Britain between 1650 and 1850 with manufacturers designing many new kinds of objects for storing, preparing and consuming them.



"In many cases they were small vessels to match the exclusivity of the drink.

"So the exhibition is also reflecting the social and economic changes of the time. Things were drunk in different ways and places that they hadn't before.

"The advent of coffeehouses became really significant and tea in parlours enabled women to get together in a respectable way.

"In lots of ways it chimes with what we are interested in today," concludes Dr Harvey.

"The arrival of places like Starbucks, for example, and all the stories about young women getting drunk – should they should be allowed to or whether it's OK if they are rich? – are the same sort of issues that occurred back then."

Displaying Drink is on display in the Metalwork Gallery of the Millennium Gallery.

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