A serpentine front design, boulle worked cartouche, broad brass pencil edging and 2-size brass stringing, not a bit of it lost to the ages. This is a fine French box dating between 150-170 years ago. Likely created with an eye to the English Grand Tour travelers, the French were not tea drinkers, but the English were. We don't see many French tea caddies at all, frankly. But this one in particular has survived as a treasured tea chest, and even has the inner foiled tea weights lids for each compartment as well as the beautiful grained wood ones. It's unusual to find both sets of lids in any tea caddies this old. Displays beautifully from all angles of view, a little obvious age but not damage from being dropped nor mis-treated. Gorgeous old thing. Measurements noted on our photos.
Very good condition for age and type. Normally this old, we'd see chips or warping, or loss of inner lids. This one really has survived well - even all that stringing and boulle work is in place and beautiful. I can see some imperfections of age in the wood, and the inner foil lined compartments show the natural yet slight deterioration to the foil. The grain of the wood inside is rich and beautiful, and the tiny turned wood knobs and bone knobs on the inner foil lids still remain, too. Beautiful old thing, isn't it.
