Rectangular, decorated with Chinese riverscapes showing figures and boats within trelliswork and Greek key borders, the interior with three porcelain compartments fitted with Old Sheffield Plate caddies for green tea, black tea and sugar, each plain with hinged cover and ball finial, the swing handles, with Sheffield-plate handles, hinges and lock plate, with book plate inside cover
the case 9¹⁄₄ in. (23 cm.) wide
The arms on the bookplate are those of Cuming impaling Bishop, for John Cuming J.P. (1771-1854) of Chiddingfold, Surrey, and his wife Anne Frances (1776-1869), daughter of Henry Bishop, of Fridinghurst, Surrey, whom he married at St. George's, Hanover Square in 1815.

John Cuming J.P. (1771-1854) of Chiddingfold, Surrey.
Anonymous sale; Christie's, New York, 23 January 2001, lot 14.

A. Stevens, K. Richenburg, G. Walkling ed., The Story of British Tea Chests and Caddies, Woodbridge, 2022, p. 331, fig. 19.8.

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Lot Essay

This is a very rare form in Chinese export porcelain. Three examples in carved ivory and mother-of-pearl with reverse glass from the collection of Basil and the Hon. Mrs. Ionides are illustrated in M. Jourdain and R. Soame Jenyns, Chinese Export Art, London, 1951, pp. 133-4. The present example has an 18th century engraved bookplate in the lid interior with the arms of Cumming impaling Bishop and inscribed Cumming. D. S. Howard, op. cit., p. 455 illustrates a saucer, circa 1775, with the arms of Cumming, referring to an earlier Cumming bookplate, the service probably made for Sir Alexander Penrose Cumming, M.P. for Inverness, who may have also ordered this tea caddy box when he was married to Helen, daughter of Sir Ludovic Grant, Bt., in September 1773.