Antique Original Continental Novelty Pear Fruit Tea Caddy
Located in Northampton, GB
FREE WORLDWIDE SHIPPING The Tea Caddy turned in Sycamore shaped as a natural Pear fruit in bulbous form with slightly tapered lid surmounted by a naturalistic stalk to the top and ...
Sycamore
Antique Continental Novelty Pear Fruit Tea Caddy
Located in Northampton, GB
Novelty Fruit Caddy From our Tea Caddy collection, we are delighted to offer this Continental Pear Fruit Tea Caddy.
Cut Steel
$10,400Sale Price|25% Off
Hand Carved Crafted Fruit Wood Coco Georgian Victorian Tea Caddy Centerpiece LA
Located in West Hollywood, CA
Hand Carved Crafted Fruit Wood Coco Georgian Victorian Tea Caddy Centerpiece LA Very rare 19th century George III to Victorian coco nut “Coco de Mer” palm nut tea caddy on a stand su...
Brass, Metal
Antique Melon Fruitwood Tea Caddy England 1790-1800
Located in London, GB
Antique Melon fruit wood Tea Caddy Date 1790-1800 Origin English This Early fruit wood tea Caddy is in excellent condition and it has the most beautiful original patina.
Fruitwood
Unusual Rare Fruit Treen Melon Tea Caddy
Located in Northampton, United Kingdom
Very rare fruit tea caddy with small creases to the top projecting from the stalk.
Fruitwood
Unusual Melon Treen Tea Caddy 19th Century
Located in Northampton, United Kingdom
This rare fruit tea caddy comes with a fully working lock and tasselled key.
Sycamore
Antique Treen Fruit Apple Tea Caddy
Located in Northampton, United Kingdom
Treen apple tea caddy with great color and patination, has button stalk and ornate cut steel escutcheon. This treen apple tea caddy still has traces of its original tin foil linin...
Steel
Antique Pear Fruit Treen Tea Caddy
Located in Northampton, United Kingdom
Antique tea caddy in the form of a Pear, with beautiful shape and patination topped with a realistic turned stalk. With steel hinge and ornate escutcheon.
Sycamore
Antique Continental Melon Fruit Tea Caddy
Located in Northampton, GB
FREE WORLDWIDE SHIPPING Stunning Mottled Patination From our Tea Caddy collection, we are delighted to offer this beautiful Antique Melon Fruit Tea Caddy.
Sycamore
Antique Continental Novelty Pear Fruit Tea Caddy
Located in Northampton, GB
Novelty Fruit Caddy From our Tea Caddy collection, we are delighted to offer this Continental Novelty Pear Fruit Tea Caddy.
Cut Steel
Antique Continental Novelty Pear Fruit Tea Caddy Circa 1800
Located in Northampton, GB
Free Worldwide Shipping Novelty Antique Fruit Tea Caddy From our Tea Caddy collection, we are delighted to offer this Continental Novelty Pear Fruit Tea Caddy.
Sycamore
Georgian Novelty Apple Fruit Tea Caddy
Located in Northampton, GB
The Apple Fruit Tea Caddy dates to the Georgian period during the reign of George III Circa 1800.
Sycamore
Antique Continental Novelty Apple Fruit Tea Caddy Circa 1800
Located in Northampton, GB
FREE WORLDWIDE SHIPPING This antique apple fruit tea caddy is turned in sycamore and modelled as a natural apple, dating to circa 1800.
Steel
Continental Antique Georgian Melon Fruit Tea Caddy
Located in Northampton, GB
The Tea Caddy is an exceptional example shaped as a Melon and made from Sycamore with a beautiful mottled patination showing colours of moss green and subtle orange. The Tea Caddy su...
Wood, Sycamore
Antique Continental Melon Fruit Novelty Tea Caddy
Located in Northampton, GB
Round Shape with Ring Handle From our Tea Caddy collection, we are delighted off this Antique Continental Melon Fruit Tea Caddy.
Steel
Decoupage and Fruit Painted Tea Caddy
Located in Greenwich, CT
Very fine early 19th century sarcophagus form tea caddy entirely decorated in original decoupaged and hand painted fruit, under original crackled varnish, retaining original brass pa...
Wood, Paint
Fine Fruit Wood Tea-Caddy c.1850
Located in London, GB
An unusual fruit wood tea-caddy with domed glass top containing dried flowers and foliage decoration c.1850.
Wood
English Regency Mahogany Tea Caddy With Fruit Wood Sea Shell Inlay
Located in Stamford, CT
18th century English Georgian mahogany tea caddy with herringbone and banded inlaid borders and oval conch shell satinwood inlay on the top.
Fruitwood, Mahogany, Satinwood
Fruitwood Tea Caddy, circa 1850
Located in London, GB
Fruitwood tea caddy, English, circa 1850. An unusual fruit wood tea-caddy with domed glass top containing dried flowers and foliage decoration.
Fruitwood
Sold
H 2.96 in Dm 3.35 in L 2.96 in
Antique 19th Century Porcelain Doucai Tea Caddy Marked Fruit Decoration Chinese
Located in Amsterdam, Noord Holland
Lovely jar with a rare and unusual decoration. You can almost loose yourself in the painting. Marked at base. Guangxu period Condition: Overall condition 1 frit to brown...
Porcelain
Continental Antique Apple Fruit Tea Caddy
Located in Northampton, GB
Shaped as an Apple From our Tea Caddy collection, we are delighted to offer this superb Continental Antique Apple Fruit Tea Caddy.
Steel
Antique Continental Pear Fruit Novelty Tea Caddy
Located in Northampton, GB
Novelty Fruit Caddy From our Tea Caddy collection, we are delighted to offer this Georgian Continental Pear Fruit Tea Caddy.
Steel
Antique Treen Pear Fruit Tea Caddy 19th Century
Located in Northampton, United Kingdom
Antique Treen Pear fruit tea caddy with wonderful patination, shaped stalk and oval cut steel escutcheon.
Wood
Antique Pumpkin Squash Treen Fruit Tea Caddy
Located in Northampton, United Kingdom
The interior of this antique treen squash still contains traces of its original tin lining, has a fully working lock with a steel key. This style of fruit tea caddy is often confu...
Wood
Antique Pear Fruit Tea Caddy
Located in London, GB
Fruit tea caddies are amazing examples of Georgian treen and they can also be found shaped as a melon and an apple.
Fruitwood
Apple Treen George III Fruit Tea Caddy
Located in Northampton, United Kingdom
Treen apple tea caddy with great color and patination, has button stalk and oval cut steel escutcheon. This treen apple tea caddy still has traces of its original tin foil lining...
Steel
Antique Blonde Treen Apple Fruit Tea Caddy
Located in Northampton, United Kingdom
Antique apple tea caddy with great blonde color and patination, has button stalk and oval cut steel escutcheon. This fabulous treen apple caddy interior still has traces of its orig...
Fruitwood
Antique Treen Apple Fruit Tea Caddy with Button Stalk, 19th Century
Located in Northampton, United Kingdom
Antique treen apple tea caddy with lovely blonde colour, has button stalk and oval cut steel escutcheon. This treen apple tea caddy still has traces of its original tin foil lini...
Cut Steel
Squash Tea Caddy
Located in Northampton, United Kingdom
Extremely Rare Pumpkin / Squash Tea Caddy with a superb dark mottled colour, lovely patination, and has a wonderful original squared stalk only seen on this type of fruit tea caddy. ...
Antique Fruit Wood Treen Pear Tea Caddy, Early 19th Century
Located in Northampton, United Kingdom
The color and patination on this pear is exactly what you want when purchasing a period Georgian fruit tea caddy.
Steel
Antique Treen Pear Fruit Wood Tea Caddy
Located in Northampton, United Kingdom
Antique pear tea caddy with wonderful realistic pear shape, has beautiful colour and wonderful patination. The Pear has a wooden stalk, has steel lock and shaped escutcheon. The ...
Apple Tea Caddy
Located in Northampton, United Kingdom
Fruit Wood Tea Caddy in the shape of an Apple. Has a tapered button stalk to the lid.
There are lots of uses for your vintage, new or antique tea caddies, but they can certainly serve their original intended purpose if needed.
When tea first gained popularity during the 1800s, and teatime became commonplace in homes all over England, it was an expensive commodity owing to excessive taxation. (This, of course, inevitably yielded a black market for tea leaves.) Tea drinkers hoarded their precious goods, which began to arrive in London ports from China during the 17th century, under lock and key. In luxury homes, tea leaves were stowed away in a decorative jar or canister called a tea caddy that was fitted with a lock, or, alternatively, the container was kept in a secured chest or storage cabinet.
Tea was thought to be not just a delicious drink but also to have medicinal benefits. The Chinese had been praising the healthy properties of tea, and wealthy Europeans were eager to discover its benefits for themselves during their ritual afternoon tea. The idea of “teatime” wasn’t a social event in upper-class British homes until the 1830s or 1840s. During Queen Victoria’s reign, small baked treats might be served with your beverage, and teakettles and coffeepots were part of tea services that could include teacups, saucers, a milk pot and other accessories.
When tea cultivation was relegated to British colonies such as India, and the British East India Company could no longer hold onto its trade monopoly with China, tea was no longer a ritual confined to the wealthy. Today, antique and vintage tea caddies are collector’s items all over the world.
Tea caddies weren’t unique to Europeans. The earliest pieces originated in China. Surviving hand-painted examples from China or elsewhere in Asia made of porcelain might feature enameled landscapes or other designs. At the Taft Museum of Art, there are striking enameled 18th-century-era tea caddies of copper that were given to the institution in 2014. Wooden tea caddies materialized over time and were seen as sturdier than their ceramic counterparts.
Today, there are all kinds of ways to use a vintage tea caddy if you’re passing on tea. They’re a welcome decorative flourish on the mantel in your living room, for example. A metal tea caddy, lined with a plastic bag, can be used to cultivate an herb garden on your kitchen windowsill. An old wooden tea caddy can help keep your paper clips or pushpins organized on your desk too. If you’re always on the go, a tea tin is good for packing earbuds, hand sanitizer, gum or whatever else that might get easily lost in a roomy crossbody messenger bag or other shoulder bag.
Teatime or not, find antique and vintage mid-century modern tea caddies, tortoiseshell caddies and more on 1stDibs.
The French sculptor shaped dense blocks into tactile forms meant to be used and held.
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The brilliantly simple design turns a modest bouquet into a major statement.
The Greek tragedian is said to have been handsome in his day.
Even for those who don’t indulge, elegant smoking accessories and audacious art portraying cigar enthusiasts hold a nostalgic allure.
It’s an excellent example of the sought-after ceramics coming out of South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province.
Thanks to its new leadership, the Spanish maker of figurines, busts and lighting is on a mission to update the art of porcelain for the 21st century.
The free-form stoneware piece is inspired by the magnolia tree and its associations with home.