Tea Was Once So Valuable It Was Kept in Locking Caddies

Author: Noor Al-Samarrai / Source: Atlas Obscura

Carved of fruitwood, lined with lead, and shaped like a peach, the fist-sized box is endearingly painted just like a fruit: yellow with streaks of red on top, and a few brown dimples that resemble bruises.

A painted leaf curls against one side, and its lid is topped with a stem that can be used to open it. Something distinctly less-fruit-like is the metal lock mounted front and center.

The box is one of the more than 450 containers known as tea caddies in Mark Bramble’s personal collection, 25 of which feature locks. Bramble took over this collection from his mother in the 1980s. A Broadway writer and director, he makes detours to antique dealers when traveling for productions around the world to add to his collection. While his mother preferred porcelain caddies, Bramble is drawn to wood and papier mache versions, some of which feature locks designed to safeguard precious tea from sticky fingers. Vessels like these once appeared in upper-class English homes, and their use provides insight into the global dealings of the British Empire.

When Camellia sinensis leaves were first introduced to England from China in the 17th century, they were prohibitively expensive. In the 1690s, the Countess of Argyll paid over £10 for just six ounces of tea, at a time when her estate lawyer’s annual income was a mere £20. Some wealthy families paid a portion of their servants’ wages in tea, or provided them with a modest tea allowance (a practice criticized by some, who thought the lower classes should content themselves with beer and ale).

For many in the monied classes, being waited on hand and foot also meant living with the fear of thievery—be it of the family silver or the coveted tea leaves. There was even concern that leftover tea leaves would be dried and sold as new. “You have also heard, that your maids sometimes dry your leaves and sell them,” read a letter in the May 1794 issue of Anthologia Hibernica. “Your industrious nymph, bent…

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