The chased scenes are based on engravings by Bernard Picart. A silver-gilt example of 1747 (originally one of a pair) belongs to the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths and is illustrated in Susan Hare, ed., Paul de Lamerie: The Work of England's Master Silversmith, cat. no. 102, p. 155, previously sold from the Dunn Gardner Collection, Christie's, London, April 29, 1902, lot 123.

This tea caddy originally formed part of a set of which the slightly larger sugar box is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Both the sugar box and this caddy are scratched underneath with a 19th or early 20th century dealer's stock number and price: 3104 dxx/d/h (3). Additionally, the Metropolitan Museum's sugar box is engraved with a scratch weight 48=6 Sett. The sugar box weighs 17oz. 7dwt. (we are grateful to Jessie McNab, Curator of Decorative Arts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, for this information). Interestingly, however, the sugar box is chased by a different hand using different chasing tools. This suggests that there was more than one highly skilled chaser specializing in this type of Chinoiserie box who supplied members of the Lamerie group. On the sugar box, the figure is gathering sugar cane.