![]() ![]() It was taxed heavily and as a result came to be smuggled extensively. Tea was touted as a delicious beverage with therapeutic properties. In 1665 it sold for 16 to 50 shillings a pound, that at a time when the average skilled workman earned less than 20 shillings a week. By the early 18th century tea was being sold in liquid as well as leaf form in coffee houses, apothecaries, as well as in shops that catered to the female market. By 1664 the English East India Company was importing tea and hailing its efficacy for curing “colds and defluxations”. In 1639 the “Garraways” opened by Sir Henry Garraway, governor of the East India Company, was the first coffee house to serve tea. Tea, originally used in China in the 4th century as a healing beverage, found its way to Europe in the 16th century, and to England by the early 17th century. Tea, Status and Storage Part One 17th to Mid 18th Century Often the boxwood inlays are shaded by use of controlled burning in hot sand. They are enhanced by inlays of contrasting woods and sometimes embellished with engraved lines. Sometimes you will find a small handle or finial on the top keyholes are inlaid with ivory, bone or boxwood. In tortoiseshell or ivory caddies the tops are sometime pyramidal. The tea caddies have straight sides, generally flat lids, though occasionally domed or concave lids are utilized. The Hepplewhite style was marked by having no feet, being of square, oval, oblong, polygonal or elliptical shape. The triple size usually had two compartments for tea and one for a sugar bowl, though occasionally there were three tea compartments, presumably because the owners were protesting the use of slaves in the production of sugar and were thus boycotting sugar. The double size had two compartments for two different types of tea or one tea compartment and one recessed area which contained a glass bowl for sugar storage. There were single, double and triple sizes. His tea caddies boasted more varied shapes and sizes. The shapes of the tea chests were generally similar, but Hepplewhite replaced metal mounts with neoclassical inlays. The difference between the 1762 designs of Chippendale’s The Gentleman & Cabinet-Maker’s Director (see my earlier blog) and the 1788 designs from Hepplewhite’s Cabinet Maker and Upholsterer’s Guide parallel the trends in style. By the 19th century the terminology had changed so that tea caddy described both type of boxes.) Throughout the 19th century tea caddy design evolved to reflect the changing tastes and attitudes of the era. (As you will remember from my previous blog, tea chests had removable containers for tea, tea caddies were containers in their own right. ![]() Both Thomas Chippendale and George Hepplewhite had a page devoted to tea chest design Hepplewhite also had a page of tea caddy designs. So it is not surprisng that by the last half of the 18th century important designers were including boxes for tea storage in their design books. ![]() By the early 18th century, tea had become an important part of English social life. This blog continues to explore tea and the development of tea caddy design from the late 18th through the 19th century. Tea, Status and Storage Part Two – Tea Caddies of the Late 18th and Early 19th Century ![]()
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