Think twice before you send that old tea caddie to a jumble sale because it just might be worth thousands of pounds. Tea caddies made of fine materials in pristine condition have considerably appreciated in value over the last two years, according to Ms Penny Bingham, head of the European works of art at Phillips auction house in London. For instance, only a few years ago, tortoiseshell or ivory tea caddies were making perhaps £600 to £800 sterling (€984 to €1,312) but now they're fetching £2,000 and £3,000, she says. At a Phillips' auction three weeks ago, six 19th century tortoiseshell tea caddies made an average of £3,000 sterling each, with two hexagonal tea caddies going for more than £4,000.
And at a Phillips' auction in Edinburgh six months ago an embossed tortoiseshell tea caddy pressed with a latticework decoration made "about £11,000" she says, values which represent "quite a dramatic increase".
Among the high-value tortoiseshell tea caddies, those stained green fetch even better prices. "Instead of that brown, pale sandy colour, it will appear green because they put a stain underneath it first," she says.
However, one must beware of fakes. "Quite a lot of the hexagonal tea caddies can be faked," she says, often done by putting tortoiseshell panels possibly cut from old Victorian visiting card cases around a modern body.
Often made of exotic woods, tea caddies "usually exhibit the finest workmanship, with lots of inlay". Indeed, furniture makers working with fine expensive woods often used tea caddies to demonstrate their skills.
Ms Bingham attributes the dramatic increase in the values of tea caddies to the strength of the Irish and English furniture market.
Moreover, tortoiseshell tea caddies, comprising thin veneers of tortoiseshell, are rare given legislation on endangered species. Other tea caddies that command high prices are done in "penwork", that is, softwood often in the form of cottages or houses with ink decoration - an early 19th century technique. "We had one the other week in the form of a house - a cottage - and that made £8,000. They were done as novelty pieces and exhibited great craftsmanship," she says. Even papiermache Victorian tea caddies, especially ones stamped by Jenns & Betridge and certain Russian tea caddies, which are sometimes inlaid with mother-of-pearl, can be worth about £200 or £300, she says.
Tea caddies were kept in the drawing room, not in the kitchen and there was "very much a tea ceremony" where the hot water was brought in and the tea was made, all "very much part of ladies' etiquette", she says. Mr Denis Drum of Drum's auction house in Malahide, Co Dublin, says that tea was a rare commodity up to the early part of 19th century and tea caddies were used "to keep the pilfering hands of the staff in the more grand houses away from the golden leaf".
The tea caddy was often divided into sections inside to sectionalise various kinds of tea. He says it's very important to distinguish between the tea caddy and a tea poy, which had the same function but is larger and is free-standing on a pedestal on the floor.
He says the average price in Ireland for a rosewood or mahogany tea caddy is between £150 (€190) and £250.
jmarms@irish-times.ie
