Description:
Fused or Sheffield silver-plated tea canister (unmarked) with a four-segment hinged cover with a mushroom-shaped ivory finial dyed green; lock and key; and two interior compartments, one for green tea and one for black. Because tea was so expensive in the 18th century, it was common to lock tea canisters to prevent the servants from using the tea. During the early years of the fused plate industry from 1750-1770, makers used devices of their own as marks, some of which looked deceptively like silver marks, especially when marked three or four times in a row and then partially obliterated. The Act of 1773 established an assay office for silver in Sheffield, and provided that no article in which silver was used, if it were not solid silver, could bear a device resembling a mark on silver. In 1784, a further act decreed that the platers could register a device, but it was not to suggest a silver mark; however platers were not compelled to use marks and did not always comply. The rim and and flat base of the slightly, bulging oval body have an applied gadrooned edge; the inside is tinned. Both the lid and bottom edge have turned-over edges used to conceal the base copper.
Subjects:
Copper Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+79.004 |
