This miniature tea cut was always in Grandma Florence’s china cabinet. It happens to be one of the items Grandma stuck a note inside:

Besides having a note in my grandmother’s handwriting, this gives the provenance of the item:

From Aunt Myra. Gr Weaver brot it to her from Neb. Many years ago. Perhaps before Gr & Gr were married ’91.

The cup, itself, is only 2 inches across for the bowl which also has a rose on the interior.

Now to decode Grandma’s note: Aunt Myra, was Hannah Almira Lee Churches, my Grandfather’s (Lee Goodliff Weaver) aunt, sister of his mother, Effie Clarissa Lee Weaver. Gr Weaver refers to Grandma Weaver (Effie Clarissa Lee Weaver) brought her from Nebraska many years ago perhaps before Grandmother and Grandfather (Lemuel Weaver) were married in 1891.

Now the story that adds to the basic note:

Grandma Weaver [my great grandmother] was in Nebraska “visiting” her mother’s (Esther Jenk Lee) sister, Minerva B. Jenks Barnes Bolton Hall. Aunt Minerva had moved to Nebraska after her divorce from her second husband, Samuel Bolton. With Aunt Minerva, came her three children: Seth Adelbert Barnes, Erminnie Barnes, and Guy Washington Bolton. The first two children were by her first husband, Nathaniel Barnes who died 28 September 1871, in Detroit. Guy Washington was the product of her marriage to Samuel. Since Aunt Minerva was running a boarding house and had 3 children, Great Grandmother probably went to help with the chores. While “visiting” in Norfolk, Madison County, Nebraska, Grandmother was able to also work in an asylum for the mentally impaired. It was there that she met Grandfather Weaver who also was working at the same asylum. They married in Norfolk on 1 August 1891. This brought about the family chant that “they met and married in an insane asylum.”

One tiny little tea cup, one long explanation.