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Lot Essay
Pewter containers for storing dry tea leaves were already widely used by the middle of the thirteenth century, and Zhao Xigu, a member of the Imperial family who was also a noted expert of antiques commented "The nature of tea leaves is not in harmony with that of ceramic or bronze jars. They only go well with pewter". (See 'Chinese Pewter Tea Wares' by Benet Bronson and Ho Chuimei, Arts of Asia, November-December 1988, p.106). Bronson and Ho comment that Feng Kebin, the official and well-known tea specialist wrote in 1642 "ceramic caddies could not be as airtight as pewter caddies" (ibid. p. 112).
Compare the very similar single pewter tea-caddy of hexafoil form from the collection of The Preservation Society of Newport County, Newport, Rhode Island, which was exhibited in New York and the China Trade, The New York Historical Society, 1984, exhibition catalogue no. C104A, p. 126. See also the somewhat earlier set of six famille rose porcelain caddies of similar form to the present lot in the British Museum, which are encased in a pewter box also of similar form to the lacquer box in this lot, which was exhibited Ancient Chinese Trade Ceramics, Taibei, 1994, catalogue no. 36.
Compare the very similar single pewter tea-caddy of hexafoil form from the collection of The Preservation Society of Newport County, Newport, Rhode Island, which was exhibited in New York and the China Trade, The New York Historical Society, 1984, exhibition catalogue no. C104A, p. 126. See also the somewhat earlier set of six famille rose porcelain caddies of similar form to the present lot in the British Museum, which are encased in a pewter box also of similar form to the lacquer box in this lot, which was exhibited Ancient Chinese Trade Ceramics, Taibei, 1994, catalogue no. 36.