Description

Penwork tea caddy with naive eastern decoration looking through arched columns. Inside, the top is lined in red velvet and lifting the bone handled lid reveals traces of the tea caddy’s original lining.

This Tea caddy comes with a working lock and tasselled key.

Penwork, or Pen and Ink, was used on boxes to illustrate beautiful scenes and sometimes to record a visit to a foreign country or vacation. They can feature people, landscapes, birds, insects, plants, flowers, animals and some have prints of greek mythology or of spa towns. These were all drawn very exact and beautifully finished with a shellac varnish. Some penwork would of been commissioned to professional artists, but the majority favoured pass-time of ladies (the ladies were often skilled in the technique as the professionals!) It’s because of this that we see many different examples of Penwork.

More information on Tea Caddies can be found on our historypage.

Additional information