Antique Boxes in English Society
1760 -1900
by ANTIGONE
Tea Caddies and Tea

A very important group of tea caddies produced in the first three decades of the 19th century are of course the Tunbridge Ware boxes. Shapes are similar to other caddies of the period with the exception that the nature of the decoration precludes extreme bombe or concave shapes. In the first thirty years of the 19th century, caddies were usually made in rosewood veneer with Van Dyke (elongated triangles) and cube pattern parquetry decoration.