Featured English Tortoiseshell tea caddy but seller said Chinese

If you mean the leaf shapes either side of the cartouche, they’re ginkgo biloba leaves. The other flower is one of the campanula family.

 

so it might just be random choice

 

There were many Scottish in the military. And many Scottish sought a better future in Asian colonies, way back when.

Quite a few Dutch-Indonesians have Scottish surnames (also Portuguese, German, French, etc which only goes to show Dutch-Indonesian is only a term).

 

My ancestors were Scottish, we got all over the place.

Ginkgo symbolises endurance and resilience, very Scots. Campanula, bellflower is gratitude and everlasting love.

 

May I ask how to best take care of them, other than rubbing with olive oil? I have noticed the veneer is much thinner than I thought, and I can see several cracks and even air bubbles under veneer. Should I be careful with temperature and humidity, for instance? Thanks a lot!

 

I had plenty of antiques that could be described as delicate, TBH it annoyed me they were only going to get worse and never looked at good as they could do. If I were you I would take the plunge of trying to flatten the lifting, if it's glued back to the wood it isn't going to come off when cleaning or handling.

 

To all that have contributed thoughts on this tea caddy:

I hereby not-so-sadly announce that an expert and dealer looked into my caddy and told me this is a reproduction made during late 20th century in China. This is actually fine to me as I paid very low compared to the genuine ones and seller never intentionally sell it as British. I was much more disappointed with my fake French glass trinket box a few months ago lol, which I paid less tho.

yet still, the effort they put into faking is unbelievable! As an amateur collector I really can’t tell the difference! And this is still a beautiful piece of art, looks great with my other boxes.

just a reminder to tea caddy collectors- beware these fabulous fakes, and never pay too much for them!

 

If it’s a repro, it’s superbly done.

 

Yes the details are insanely good, i.e. the pewter inlays, the veneered sides of lid. And I do think it’s been used and loved through those years

 

I would never have guessed.
Excellent work, but a pity they used the shell of species that was already on the endangered list at the time. Sad to think that hawksbill turtles are also used for the fakes industry.

 

I'm so sorry for you, what a good fake, it would have fooled me, is it made of faux materials?

 

They are only completely banned like twenty years ago in China. So far I have only seen Japanese vintages actively in trade right now (made in about same time)

 

The materials are all real: tortoiseshell, MOP, bone… so not really a big loss. I now have a lesson in mind, and a still beautiful box lol

 

If all real materials then how does expert know it's fake?

 

he pointed out the problems with the hinges and lock, which as an amateur collector cannot tell more lol but that conclusion does match the few suspicious points I have in my mind

 

I did say caddies aren't my field but just the hinges and lock? these do get changed on old boxes. Without it being in front of me I couldn't say for sure but normally fakes don't go to the trouble of using real materials.

 

Ditto.

Tea caddies are not my area of expertise either, and of course we rarely get British tea caddies here.

 

I think he already knows these fakes are everywhere in uk market, and he has a publication on them and how to identify. I do believe in him, cuz I just found a Chinese dealer saying he has twenty tea caddies ( not identical to mine tho) all being dead stocks from an old workshop. So they are definitely faked in great quantity and quality. Same tea caddy was seen at auctions, one of them stated as reproduction and still went to nearly 200 GPB

 

Another point, why would they fake such a hard to do shape? when more square straight lined boxes would be so much easier.

 

Ok, if they are so well known then maybe they were faked to fool the best, what a shame I have always been in fear of fakes, it's how a strong priced antique becomes almost worthless even if it's real.