The hot water urn was an essential part of the tea service by the latter half of the 18th century. It kept the water warm so that the tea pot could be refilled. The charcoal burning urn made its appearance in the 1760s and rapidly put teaand coffee kettles, which have a burner underneath, out of fashion. The discovery, patented by John Wadham in 1774, that a heated bar of cast iron, inserted in a tube around which the water flowed, acted almost as efficiently as an external charcoal burner and allowed for a more elegant design, meant that the heater could be dispensed with.

Tea urns were not made of Sheffield plate until 1785. This octagonal, vase-shaped example from about this time has rising handles and is decorated with stars, a reeded band and borders of zigzag. The knob and tap handle are of green stained ivory. Inside the urn is a cylindrical receptacle for a heating iron.

Sheffield plate originated, with the discovery in 1742, that bars of silver and copper, in unequal proportions, fused by heating under pressure, could be rolled into sheets of laminated metal and worked like silver. The industry this material created flourished for about 100 years until superseded by electroplating in the 1840s.