A PAIR OF GEORGE III SILVER-GILT TEA CADDIES

The plain oblong form of these caddies, by the specialist caddy maker Pierre Gillois, is inspired by the wooden tea chests in which the tea was transported from China. As Jeanne Sloane observes in her chapter on silver tea caddies in Stevens, Richenburg and Walkling, op. cit., p. 310, the beautifully engraved floral trellis work is likely to have been executed by a specialist engraver, working from designs for contemporary textiles used by the thriving London Spitalfields silk industry. This is illustrated by the set of three caddies by Edward Wakelin of 1758, sold Christie's, New York, 23 March 2021, lot 64, which are engraved with the same floral trellis. An identical caddy by Gillois of the same year, but with a foliage final, is in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Inv. no. M.320-1962.