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Antique 18th c. tea caddy with cast escutcheon and carrying handle and bracket feet Circa 1780

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Description:
Ref: 881TC    http://hygra.com/box/881TC  

Georgian  mahogany tea caddy with cast escutcheon and carrying handle standing on bracket feet. 
Inside there is now one compartment, but there is evidence that the caddy once had three tea compartments and a place for spoons. The flame figure of the mahogany is particularly striking. Above the base there is rope twist banding made from alternate pieces of rosewood and boxwood.
The mahogany was selected for grain and figure. It would have been cut slice by slice in a sawpit. This was the age before the band-saw and the circular saw.
A slice about 1.5 mm in thickness is glued to straight grained pine/spruce, which is cut on the quarter for dimensional stability. 
The panel in the bottom is oak, again cut for stability.
This is classic tea-chest design from the drawings of Chippendale-1754.  

Origin: UK;  Circa:1780 ; Materials: mahogany on an oak and pine structure.

Size: 24 cm wide by 14 cm by 15.4 cm:  9.5 inches wide by  5.5 inches by  6.1 inches.

Condition: good overall; working lock and key; see images; as each person has different criteria and antiques by their very nature have wear  please enlarge the images and ask for extra information as needed. 

Request current  list of available sewing boxes with prices.
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The escutcheon is cast and then gilded.  It retains some of its gold.

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The scrolling swan neck carrying handle is gilded too. 

 

Above the base there is rope twist banding made from alternate pieces of rosewood and boxwood.

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The inside still has traces of its original lead lining. The leas was used as a water and moisture resistant layer to maintain the stability of the wood.

Tea could be damp.

 

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There is evidence that the caddy once had three tea compartments and a place for spoons. 

 

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Side View:
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The caddy/chest may have had canisters similar to http://hygra.com/uk/tc2/TC572-Bombe_shape_mahogan_%20tea_chest_circa_1770D/

I think it probably had three tin-ware canisters.

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The figure of the mahogany with is swirls of grain and colour.

Simple and elegant, very Georgian,  but with complex cabinet work which has allowed it to survive for more than 200 years.

  

 

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All text and images and linked images are © 1999-2013 Antigone Clarke and Joseph O'Kelly. If you require any further information on permitted use, or a licence to republish any material, email us at copyright@hygra.com