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Tea Chest

1740-1760

The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Williamsburg, United States

Boxes of this sort with multiple containers for tea often are called "tea caddies." In the eighteeth century, however, they were referred to as "tea chests." "Tea chest" refers to "a small kind of cabinet in which tea is brought to the table. Dean Swift, in his DIRECTIONS TO SERVANTS (1729), wrote of "small chests and trunks, with lock and key, wherein they keep the tea and sugar;" and Mrs. Delany in 1740 spoke of a "very neat tea chest" she had got for a friend "which shall be filled with tea and delivered to her."
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The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

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