Derivi jon from Chinese Catty In his diary of 1962, Samuel Pepys wrote: "Home, afd there find wife making of tea which is good for her cold. In those early days the word) was nounced "tay," and the itself was very expensive, ting over five guineas a pound, and of a quality inferior to the 18th tury prices fell.
The cheapest quality was bohea, ranging from nine to 26 shillings a) pound, while green tea ranged from 12 to'30 shillings. Tea dust could be bought by the thrifty housewife at ten shillings a pound. The cx-) cessive duty was responsible for the almost prohibitive prices. Yet the 18th Century wa tly a tea dunging age. Doctor Johnson w: fan excessive tea-drinker, sometimes consuming as much as 20 cups at a sitting.
An Old Custom Owing to the high price of tea, our ancestresses Kept it in a_ special] receptacle called a caddy. The we caddy is derived from the Chinese) pound, which is called a catty, and is) equal to a pound and a third avoirducis. These first cuddies were widemouthed bottles of blue and white imilar in shape to the ginger jar. After a time they were fitted into dainty little boxes provid ed with loc. and key, to safeguard the treasured store. "Usually these boxes were divided into two divisions, one for black tea, one for green tea. Sometimes there was a central compartment in which stood a cut glass sugar bowl.
But tea-caddies were not confined to porcelain only. Woods of all Kinds, - tortoiseshell. Battersea enamel, Sheffield plate, pewter, and silver have all been employed in the EA, production of the English tea-caddy. The custom in former times was for the boiling water to-be brought in on the afternoon tea-tray by the maid, and the mistress herself would make the tea. The tea-caddy, there. fore, had to be an ornament fit for display among visitors. As the price of tea became lower the quality of the tea-caddies deteriorated. In the early years of the 19th Century they became bulky, and were generally made of mahogany or rosewood.
Some Early Specimens Among the earliest caddies still) preserved are those of the Chippen-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.