A NEAR PAIR OF GEORGE III IVORY TEA-CADDIES

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AFTERNOON SESSION AT 2:30 P.M. OBJECTS OF ART AND FURNITURE VARIOUS PROPERTIES 'I did send for a cup of tea, a china drink which I had never drunk before' wrote Samuel Pepys in his Diary on 25 September 1660. By the Georgian period tea-drinking had become fashionable and more widespread, and in 1710 the Tatler commented that breakfast no longer consisted of 'three rumps of beef' but that 'tea and bread and butter... more of late prevailed'. The Female Spectator (1744) would write that a fashionable tea-table was more costly to maintain than two children and a nurse (see G. Walkling, Tea Caddies, London, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1988). The high price of tea meant that it was customary for it to be kept under lock and key. Indeed in his Directions to the Waiting-Maid (published posthumously in 1745), Jonathan Swift lamented the 'invention of small chests and trunks, with lock and key', where small canisters of green and black tea and sometimes sugar were kept, 'without which it is impossible for a waiting maid to live' (quoted in J. Gloag, 'Tea Caskets and Containers', The Connoisseur, February 1977.) These small, inventive tea-caddies were made of a rich variety of materials produced by cabinet-makers and amateurs alike, in an assortment of shapes, closely reflecting the influences of contemporary design and taste. William Pitt's Commutation Act of 1784 removed the heavy tax-duty on tea and also forced the East India Company to import enough tea to satisfy demand. However, tea continued to be regarded as a luxury until well after the 1830s. By this time tea was far cheaper and no longer needed to be kept under lock and key. Social changes also meant that tea was prepared in the kitchen rather than the drawing-room, and the manufacture of the tea-caddy consequently started to decline.

Details

A NEAR PAIR OF GEORGE III IVORY TEA-CADDIES
Each banded overall with tortoiseshell, the ten-sided hinged top with loop handle within a mother-of-pearl oval, the interior with tortoiseshell-banded border and a cover, the front centred by a shield hung with mother-of-pearl garlands, slight cracking of ivory on front of one, restorations and areas of infill, one interior lid possibly associated
4 in. (10 cm.) high; 4¼ in. (11 cm.) wide; 2¾ in. (7 cm.) deep (2)

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

From the 1780s elegant tea-caddies veneered with ivory and tortoiseshell were popular, remaining fashionable throughout the 19th Century. A related ivory caddy dated circa 1800 veneered with panels of ivory and fine tortoiseshell stringing is in the Victoria and Albert Museum (inv. no. W52-1919) and is illustrated in G. Walkling, Tea Caddies, London, 1988, fig. 58. A pair of tea-caddies with similar garlanded swags was sold anonymously, Phillips London, 22 June 1999, lot 66.

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