Collecting with Myrtle Duff Tea caddies for security

Press, 15 July 1980, Page 12

Collecting with Myrtle Duff Tea caddies for security

If, like me. you have long since given Up the struggle to remember the ever-rising prices of the items on your grocery list and just leave it ail to the check-out woman at the supermarket, it may be comforting to realise that at least one item has just about reached the minimum price it commanded a couple of centuries ago.

In 1665 Lea was advertised for sale in England from sixteen shillings to fifty shillings a pound. In 1728 a London merchant offered “Tea at all. prices.

Rohea from thirteen shillings to twenty shillings and green from twelve to thirty shillings.’’ At such prices it is not surprising that the commodity was kept in stout boxes complete with lock and. key. unlocked only by the laily <>! the house when lea was about to be brewed. The boxes, known first as ira-che-.is ami later as tra-caildics. were portable, ami usually part it toned to provide separate Compartments lor different types of lea. The Compartments were lined with metal, but were sometimes furnished with .Separate. eanniMers which could be

lifted out more easily to dispense the tea.

It was the custom to mix the teas to suit the taste of family or guests.

An illustration in the “Dictionary of English Furniture,” published in 1924 by Country Life, Ltd, shows a painting attributed to Joseph van Aken entitled “Conversation” in which the whole tea equipage of the period 1710-1720 is shown.

The open caddy is on the floor. One cannistef has been removed, anil the hostess is about to infuse the tea at the table while the • guests wait expectantly. Tea was originally

exported to the rest of the world from China, where it had been used for cert-, turies. It arrived in England in the mid-sev-enteenth century. The word itself is a direct borrowing from a Chinese dialect, as are the words for tea in most languages of the world. It is umlersiandable. therefore, that the name given lo the boxes in which it was kept was also a corruption of a Chinese word. Caddy is derived from the name of a Chinese weight measure "kali” whic.lt was roughly equal to ail English pound Weight. It is'believed by many

scholars that the great Chinese nation survived and prospered for so long, avoiding the terrible plagues which periodically destroyed the people of other countries, because of the widespread habit of drinking tea which always -required the water to be boiled. I have never been to China ' but on my first visit to Japan during a very war in .'.and hum di .August. Jiit 1966 I learned very quickly tb appreciate the value of the everpresent cups of gree’n tea. Nothing is. more refreshing. The Asian habit of providing it immediately wherever one may be is ■most welcome. -Ip . the Western world too- the. habit of offering tea. as a first courtesy to u guest on arrival or to any caller at one’s home is now fairly widespread. To millions of people throughout the world the preparation. of. tea?, is .the first reaction in any emergency — from a tearful visit by a neighbour seeking solace to an event of such magnitude as the evacuation of the troops front Dunkirk during World War 11.

In such large-scale crises trestle tables are set up, large enamel tea-pots and multi-pots appear, dnd volunteers produce hitndrdes of clips of- tea-as if by.magic;. . Oil' the domestic, scene brie, usually reaches for .. the tea-caddy with one ■‘hand and the electric jug i’with the other.

Caddies today usually seem to be brightty coloured tins, and have a limited existence. Most will not survive to become heirlooms. 1 seem to recall a succession of them, the earliest ones standing on the kitchen mantlepiece above the stove with its steaming kettle always ready to dispense the gheering cup. ■ They gleamed with brightly coloured 'Oriental scenes, and with what appeared to be gold. At least one. though, was decorated in the austere blue and white of the popular willow pattern.

From the 17th to the 19th century, caddies were much more substantial and many of these are lovingly cared for today. In the -guide to the Colonists’ Galleries at Canterbury Museum, Rose Reynolds observed that the oldest piece of furni-ture-was a box. This early “furniture” itself had evolved from a hollowed out log' in which primitive man kept his treasures.

The wooden tea caddies of Georgian and Victorian England are beautiful examples of the development of the box. Some of these tnay be seen ■ in the China Shop in the Colonists’ Galleries at- .the museum. ..One .from the J. H. ' Seager collection ' is decorated with inlaid wood and. has its own silver caddy-spoon. Another, of mahogany inlaid with mother of pearl, • was in 1780 and had belonged

to the great-great-graqd-mother of the donor. There are others of plain mahogany and rosewood, and one .beautiful box of the Sheraton period with a shell Jand floral design in inlaid wood. In addition to the wood-

eriycaddies; • the “Encyclopedia of Antiques,’’ published' 'by Octopus Books in 1976, illustrates one in deep blue' Irish glass surmounted by a silver lid, and slightly ftrnallerybne in silver.