Dimensions
12.5 inches wide, 6.5 inches deep and 7 inches high.
For metric please multiply by 2.5
Full Description
A very beautiful burr yew and figured oak English Regency casket for jewellery, lined in natural chamois leather. Principally c. 1825
Originally a Regency tea caddy, a fine antiques restorer based in Kent has worked on this piece for many months and has made this exquisite work of art.
The inner figured brown oak compartment is made by hand. There is a working original lock and key and the Regency brass feet are very fine and shaped like overlapping petals.
In the 18th and early 19th Century, tea was so expensive and so desirable that it was kept under lock and key in very fine high quality boxes made in exotic timbers such as this. The price of these boxes, often made from the most expensive woods, reflected the high value of the intended contents.
Most tea caddies had two compartments and a central glass mixing bowl for combining different loose leaf teas to create the flavour of the day.
Two hundred years later tea is generally inexpensive and these original, early tea caddies are no longer used for their original purpose.
To see one brought beautifully back to life and purpose in a traditional hand crafted way is a happy thing indeed.
The full proceeds from this sale will go to the restorer who has more than 50 years experience working on national museum and private collections of furniture and who is a rare and highly skilled individual.
