What wood are tea caddies usually made from?

Mahogany is the single most common word in these listings after the object name itself, appearing in one title in five, with rosewood in one in eight. Satinwood, walnut and yew follow. Beyond those, harewood, kingwood, coromandel, amboyna and partridge wood recur in smaller numbers, generally as decorative veneers rather than whole bodies.

Why do caddies have locks?

Tea arrived in Britain in the seventeenth century as an expensive commodity, and the box was made to keep it under key. That's the origin of the form. The lockable wooden box with fitted compartments or metal canisters became the standard domestic type through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Keys are mentioned in only a couple of titles across the archive.

How many compartments does a caddy have?

One, two or three is the usual arrangement. Titles describe single, twin and double compartment interiors in similar numbers. Three-compartment caddies turn up regularly, and some have a glass or cut-glass mixing bowl set between the divisions for blending two teas.

A caddy raised on its own pillar-and-tripod stand, made as a piece of furniture rather than a box for a table. Teapoys are a small tail of the category, appearing in around nineteen titles. Sampled examples run to rosewood, mahogany, oak, satinwood and burr walnut, plus one Swedish burr elm.

Are tortoiseshell caddies common?

No. Tortoiseshell appears in fewer than one title in twenty, counting both spellings used by dealers. Despite that, tortoiseshell examples account for a large share of the upper end of the range. Blonde tortoiseshell is rarer still.

Do unusual shapes and novelty caddies exist?

They do, though sparingly. Sarcophagus, oval and octagonal forms are the established alternatives to the plain rectangle, with hexagonal, cube, bombé and domed-top bodies behind them. True novelties surface once or twice across the whole archive: a house, a pear, an apple, a melon, a decanter, a coal scuttle, a clock tower and a bulldog in a kennel.

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Antique Tea Caddies

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A tea caddy is a small lockable wooden box, fitted inside with compartments or metal canisters, made to keep loose tea under key when tea was an expensive import.