Monkey teapot
Porcelain and enamels, J.J. Kändler (modeller), Meissen, Germany, ca.1735
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Monkey teapot
Porcelain and enamels, J.J. Kändler (modeller), Meissen, Germany, ca.1735
The Chitra Collection is an extraordinary private museum of historic teawares. In 2011 Nirmal Sethia, the Chairman of the luxury tea company, Newby Teas, set himself the task of acquiring the world’s greatest collection of teawares to record and preserve tea cultures of the past. Today, the collection, named in honour of his late wife, Chitra, totals almost 2000 objects and is already the world’s finest and most comprehensive collection of its kind.
Porcelain and enamels, J.J. Kändler (modeller), Meissen, Germany, ca.1735
Porcelain and enamels, J.J. Kändler (modeller), Meissen, Germany, ca.1735
Silver-gilt and cloisonné enamel, Pavel Ovchinnikov, Russia, 1896-1908
Silver-gilt and cloisonné enamel, Pavel Ovchinnikov, Russia, 1896-1908
Bloodstone and gold openwork, Germany, ca.1750
Bloodstone and gold openwork, Germany, ca.1750
Silver and ivory, Paul Storr, England, 1814
Silver and ivory, Paul Storr, England, 1814
📚 A tea caddy disguised as a stack of books…
Designed as a novelty object for the 19th-century home, this unusual tea caddy is made from oak with pale wood and walnut veneers cleverly arranged to imitate book spines.
Look closely and you’ll find titles including Crums of Comfort and Ovid’s The Art of Love, Volumes I and II. The sliding top “book”, titled The Tea Table, A Poem, even conceals the caddy’s keyhole.
Book-shaped tea caddies first appeared in Britain towards the end of the 18th century, but one detail helps us date this example much later: The Ladies’ Delight, written across the back, references Émile Zola’s novel published in 1883.
A playful meeting of literature, craftsmanship and tea culture. ☕📖
#ChitraCollection #TeaCaddy #TeaHistory #DecorativeArts #MuseumCollection #19thCentury #AntiqueFurniture #HistoryOfTea #MuseumObjects #ObjectOfTheDay
