The early forms of tea-caddy were square or round. It may be imagined that so precious a beverage had to be stored carefully. Hence the receptacles for tea were somewhat luxurious in character. We illustrate a square type representative of the early days of the eighteenth century (illustrated [p. 259]). This example was made at Exeter. The South Sea Bubble was just about to be blown at the formation of the South Sea Company to take over the national debt. Such a specimen is of rarity and is worth about £40 or £50. The round example adjacent is of London make with the hall-marks for 1730, in the opening years of George II, straight from the days when Sir Robert Walpole governed England.
The late eighteenth-century types were oval in form. The illustration of two examples ([p. 259]) shows this style. The left-hand one is in date 1775, and its fellow has the London hall-marks for 1784. These show very clearly the evolution in form culminating in the satinwood Sheraton variety tea-caddy so much sought after by collectors. The lines of the silversmith became coincident with the worker in rare woods. They touch at this date. If one takes Chippendale’s Director or Sheraton’s design books we can see the progress of the cabinet-maker, first in mahogany and then in satin and other beautifully coloured woods, in arriving at a casket similar in character to the silver-worker’s design.
Half-way between the early and late eighteenth century styles we illustrate ([p. 263]) a set of Tea-caddies and a Sugar-box, in date 1760, showing where the silversmith adhered to the higher plane of his technique, equally evading the plagiarism of the potter or the cabinet-maker. This set of three vessels is indisputably metal in every inch of their construction. The bases are reminiscent of the floral refinements of the Charles II and James II periods. The bowls have a rotundity and exquisite sprightliness in form, relieved by chasing that defies the woodworker and cannot be imitated by the potter. The knobs appertain so strongly to the metal-worker that they are inimitable. This set, therefore, stands as being exceptionally interesting in exhibiting the work of the artist in silver kept on a high level apart from extraneous influences.
The later teapot cannot be said to have much to commend it, if it be with straight spout and of oval or geometric form. Oftentimes it is a woodworker’s design with additions. The cabinet-maker has not essayed to make a wooden teapot. But the silversmith has completed the hiatus. Take the tea-caddy of 1784 (illustrated [p. 259]), add a straight metal spout and a handle; the result is a teapot; but it can hardly lay claim to being in the first rank of design. It stands with the modern potter’s results, exceptionally fine in their own field—round, hexagonal, octagonal, oval, square, or of many other forms, all suited to his plastic art, but the silver-worker should stand on a plane apart, and in the best periods he did.
SALE PRICES
COFFEE-POTS.
Queen Anne coffee-pots realize from 50s. to 60s. per oz.
George I coffee-pots about £1 per oz., and George II from 10s. to 13s. per oz.
George III coffee-pots bring from 7s. to 10s. per oz. and George IV and William IV about 5s. or 6s. per oz.