Coopered Barrel Advertising Tea Caddy

About the Item

Rare & Unusual Advertising Tea Barrel Caddy The Tea Caddy modelled in the form of a coopered barrel complete with two thick brass straps around a beautifully patinated body with a mahogany plinth having a cavetto edge. The lid with a matching cavetto edge having a beautiful star inlay motif surmounted by a turned finial in the shape of an acorn. The front of the caddy is beautifully inlaid in Ebony with the word Tea in a 3d effect. We are confident this Caddy would have been commissioned as an advertising piece for a luxury tea shop in the mid-19th century with tea being such a desirable commodity in higher society. Provenance Sold at Grosvenor House antique fair in the 1970s to a trade collector until our ownership. Mahogany the name given to many types of tropical hardwood and can be found in Africa, India and South America, most of which are a red-brown colour with a fine, even grain. This makes it easily workable and gives it a durable finish which attributes to its popularity with many kinds of furniture. Ebony is often almost completely black with very little visible grain often with a subtle red/purple hue. This wood is very expensive due to the slow-growing trees which can often be gnarly affecting the yield of straight workable wood. Most ebonies are very dense making work with hand tools very difficult and can quickly blunt cutting tools. This density however offers an excellent finish on turned items. Coopered Barrel A wooden Barrel made by a craftsman. Craftsmen who made wooden barrels were called coopers. The word is derived from the Latin word for vat, "cupa." In New England, coopers arrived with the first English settlers in the 1620s. Their work was essential to commerce and daily life. The fishing industry used barrels for shipping pickled and dried fish. Farmers used them for storing grains, butter and cider. Merchants used them for storing hardware and dried goods of every kind. The whaling industry used barrels to store tools and provisions and of course whale oil. Barrels had an abundance of uses and were easily stored and stacked and were not fragile like ceramic.

Dimensions:

Height: 10 in (25.4 cm)Width: 9 in (22.86 cm)Depth: 5.5 in (13.97 cm)

Style:

Early Victorian (Of the Period)

Materials and Techniques:

Brass,Ebony,Mahogany,Wood,Hand-Carved

Place of Origin:

England

Period:

Mid-19th Century

Date of Manufacture:

circa 1840