Description

Antique octagonal tented top Tea Caddy with brass looped handle, inlaid oak leaf medallion on the front panel, flanked by boxwood and ebony nautical style stars with bone circles.

The interior of this mahogany tented top tea caddy has two compartments with brass handled lids.

Tea caddy comes complete with fully working lock and tasselled key.

In England in the 1700s, tea was an expensive commodity. To keep it safe, people would store it in a lockable Tea Chest or Tea Box, which eventually became known as a Tea Caddy (the word caddy is derived from the Malay “kati”, a unit of weight by which tea was sold). As tea was too expensive to risk leaving in the presence of servants, the caddy would be kept in the drawing room. Subsequently, the Tea Caddy became an important & fashionable accessory for the home.

Additional information