Lot Essay
This caddy and its mate are described in Oswald Peel's Estate Inventory of 1765 as "2 Tea Cannisters" and again in his wife Lydia Peel's 1785 Will as two "square Cannistors" (Philadelphia City Hall, Register of Wills, Will nos. 141 and 306). The caddies belonged to a substantial group of silver objects owned by Oswald and Lydia Peel, weighing 364 ounces total and comprising "1 Slop Bowl 1 Sugar Dish 1 doz Table Spoons 1 Punch Bowl 2 Tankards 2 Cans 6 Tea Spoons 2 Cream Pots 2 Tea Pots 1 Coffee Pot 3 Castors 2 Salts & Shovels 2 Tea Cannisters 2 small Waiters 6 Porringers 1 Soop Spoon a Tea Strainer a pair of Tea Tongs and Punch Strainer." Lydia Peel divided this silver among her four daughters, leaving her daughter Grace "One Square slop Basin, One square Sugar Dish, One square Tea Pot and stand, One square Cream Pott, Two square Cannistors and three square Cast[ers] all of Silver." The matching tea caddy, also engraved "Green Tea," is described by Martha Gandy Fales in Joseph Richardson and Family, Philadelphia Silversmiths, 1975, pp. 98-99. An octagonal sugar bowl ("square Sugar Dish") also from the group bequeathed to Grace Peel and made by Joseph Richardson was sold at Sotheby's, November 19, 1980, lot 189, and is illustrated in Fales, op. cit., fig. 50.
The design of this caddy is related to a pair by Thauvet Besley, engraved "Green Tea" and "Bohea Tea" (one illustrated in Isabelle Miller, Silver by New York Makers, 1937, fig. 28, p. 45; in the collection of the Museum of the City of New York). These are the only known American tea caddies which are inscribed with the type of tea they contained.
In 1728, Oswald Peel came to Philadelphia from Barbados, where he had been a captain of a merchant vessel. In Philadelphia he became a ship owner and successful merchant. Peel was one of the Burgesses in Assembly for the city from 1742 to 1748, and a county Representative from 1748 to 1749. He built "Peel Hall," on the Ridge Road about three miles from the city, where he lived from 1742 to 1765 (Charles R. Hildeburn, Manuscript Collection of Family Data, n.d., v.II, pp. 58-59, Historical Society of Philadelphia). Lydia Peel was the daughter of Richard Robinson (d. 1745), a Quaker merchant who came to Philadelphia after 1702.
[Photo caption:] Inventory of the Personal Estate of Oswald Peel, August, 1765 (Philadelphia City Hall, Register of Wills, Will #141)
The design of this caddy is related to a pair by Thauvet Besley, engraved "Green Tea" and "Bohea Tea" (one illustrated in Isabelle Miller, Silver by New York Makers, 1937, fig. 28, p. 45; in the collection of the Museum of the City of New York). These are the only known American tea caddies which are inscribed with the type of tea they contained.
In 1728, Oswald Peel came to Philadelphia from Barbados, where he had been a captain of a merchant vessel. In Philadelphia he became a ship owner and successful merchant. Peel was one of the Burgesses in Assembly for the city from 1742 to 1748, and a county Representative from 1748 to 1749. He built "Peel Hall," on the Ridge Road about three miles from the city, where he lived from 1742 to 1765 (Charles R. Hildeburn, Manuscript Collection of Family Data, n.d., v.II, pp. 58-59, Historical Society of Philadelphia). Lydia Peel was the daughter of Richard Robinson (d. 1745), a Quaker merchant who came to Philadelphia after 1702.
[Photo caption:] Inventory of the Personal Estate of Oswald Peel, August, 1765 (Philadelphia City Hall, Register of Wills, Will #141)