Mark Goodger Antiques Newsletter April 10th 2025

Before we get started with this weeks newsletter Mark would personally like to thank all of you who attended and purchased from him at the NEC Antique Fair in Birmingham. It was a back to back fair following the CADA fair in London but now Mark has a break before heading down to the annual Petworth Park Fair in May.

This week we wanted to highlight an article we had written about Fruit Tea Caddies from a collector titled “A Fondness for Fruit Caddies”. The article is a fantastic take from a collector about why collecting fruit caddies becomes a passion once hooked.  

“To buy or not to buy that is the question”?

How many times have I stood in front of an object, gazed at it and pondered why on earth I need to buy it? The brain then ticks away thinking where could I put it,  how good it would look and lastly whether I can afford it. Why on earth does anyone need an 18th-century tea caddy in the shape of an apple?

Then the obliging expert miraculously appears in this case Mark Goodger, master of all things beautiful, small and perfectly formed. He fires up my enthusiasm with his knowledge of the said object and encourages me to buy with his comments on the caddy’s wonderful colour, condition, value and of course the fact that it’s a real collector’s piece!
So, I deal …..enjoy doing the deal and then find myself smiling all the way home, feeling perhaps a little guilty but what the hell! Yes, it looks great amongst my other tea caddies as I knew it would and having rearranged things a little, I may just have found a small space for perhaps yet another one …one day!
I’ve often asked myself why I feel the need to buy more tea caddies but for me it’s a real and abiding passion, as tea caddies for me tell a story and just looking at them sends me back a couple of centuries.  They seem to speak to me with their shape, colour and the fact they are so tactile… I wonder who has touched them, who has used them and where they have sat.  What have they seen if only they could speak! Of course, caddies once held a very important place in a grand household when tea was very expensive so had to be kept under lock and key!

With Mark Goodger at my side with his encouraging words, persuading me to buy yet another of his tea caddies it surely beats collecting Tupperware and tin boxes.

It’s fruitwood caddies for me every time.

They say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, and our guest writers daughter is an artist and just as passionate about these precious fruit caddies. Rather than a photograph memento, Emma prefers to capture them in another medium! Which we think is fantastic.


If you are interested to see any more of Emma’s work she can be found on Instagram @emmagigiart or click the image above.

Below we have included some of the beautiful fruit caddies we currently have available in our collection all of which come with free worldwide shipping and a certificate of authenticity. 

Now available to purchase online, the leading collectors guide on Tea Chests and Caddies. We have listed two versions on our website of the book for domestic postage and for the rest of the world (Inc. Shipping). Those in the UK please click here and for those outside of the UK please click here. 

Our 25th Anniversary Catalogue is live on our website containing a stunning collection of curated objects throughout our entire range. Please click on the cover image below to view an online version of our catalogue. If you have any questions please contact us directly via email here. 

Complimentary tickets will be uploaded to our events page on our website once they become available. Please click on the banner for your chosen event below to access the event page on our website.

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