A children's tea party in the garden of the Johnston family in Bordertown. The younger girl is passing a tea cup to her older sister, who nurses a kitten. Their brother stands behind. A doll in a wickerwork perambulator is placed to one side. The girls wear elaborate starched pinafores and the boy's dark suit is enhanced with a wide white collar.

Tea parties, indoors or outside, were a popular way of play and enabled children to practice their table graces and imitate their elders. Whether the teapot in the child's left hand held real tea, or only make-believe, was immaterial to the pattern of play being enacted in the garden.

Batkin, Maureen. Gifts for good children: the history of children's china. Part 2, 1890-1990, Ilminster, Somerset: Richard Dennis, [1991?]

The endless playground: celebrating Australian childhood, compiled and edited by Paul Cliff; with introductory essays by Robert Holden and features by Jack Bedson ... [et al.], Canberra: National Library of Australia, 2000

Fabian, Sue. Children in Australia: an outline history, Melbourne: Hyland House, 1980

King, Constance Eileen. The collector's history of dolls, London: R. Hale; New York: St. Martin's Press, 1978, c1977

State Library of South Australia: Mortlock Wing exhibitions. To be a child August 2004-