Description

Antique sycamore tea caddy with naive prints of Venus the “Goddess of love and beauty” with her Son Cupid who depicts love, attraction, affection and desire. The tea caddy has symetrical inlays surrounding the prints and is repeated on its canted sides with oval medallions of tulipwood & burr yew to the sides & back.

The interior of this antique sycamore tea caddy features a single brass handled sycamore veneered lid with similar inlays, its original pink paper lining to the lid and contains traces of its tin foil lining.

This wonderful sycamore tea caddy comes with a fully working lock and tasselled key.

All our items come with authentication certificate with image, as well as our latest catalogue, care instructions and separate invoice for insurance purposes. On top of this our items come with 14 day no quibble money back guarantee and are all fully insured for when shipping.

THE HISTORY OF ANTIQUE TEA CADDIES
In England in the 1700s, tea was an expensive commodity. To keep it safe, people would store it in a 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 in which it was stored would generally be kept in the drawing room. Subsequently, the Tea Caddy became an important & fashionable accessory for the home.
Tea Caddies were made in a huge variety of styles and materials. Some contained glass bowls. The bowl is believed to be either for sugar, or for the purpose of mixing different varieties of tea to the drinker’s personal taste. As tea became cheaper in the early 1800s, its use was much more widespread, increasing the demand for tea caddies. However, by the late 1800s when tea could be bought pre-packed, the demand for tea caddies as functional items gradually disappeared.

Today Tea Caddies are sought after as decorative pieces, in all shapes & forms.
Purchasing a Tea Caddy / Tea Chest from us you can be satisfied that they have been carefully examined and assessed, and only restored where absolutely necessary.

All boxes at Mark Goodger Antiques are professionally restored using traditional skills all by hand. Purchasing a box from us you can be satisfied in thinking that they have been carefully looked over and only restored where necessary. Buying a box from us gives you piece of mind you are buying an original item, and from a dealer who belongs to three leading trade associations and abides by all thier strict conducts of code. Mark Goodger is a BADA,CADA & LAPADA Member.