Featured Blue Enamel Tiffin Carrier. Ca. 1900

I've been chasing a Peranakan tiffin carrier for a LONG time. So far, I haven't found one.

But today I bought the next best thing. A beautiful, blue enameled tiffin carrier, with lovely gold-paint decals on the sides. A bit faded, but it's the better part of 120 years old, at least...



These are the only two photos I have of it at the moment (currenly packed up ready for transport). It is a four-tier model, as you can see. The lid at the top flips over, toserve as a plate or bowl while eating, as well as being a cover. Small chips here and there from general wear-and-tear, but no major damage, cracks or - even more importantly - dents!

This will look great next to my big brass one...

 

FINALLY I know what to put my tiffins in.....
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You KNOW I love the color.

 

nice piece....!!

 

A well-carried tiffin is a tasty tiffin!

I still hold out hopes for a nice Straits Chinese one. But they're getting harder and harder to find, and the prices are EXPLODING.

*sigh*

 

I give up...

WHY so much interest????

 

Because they're EXTREMELY rare. They haven't been made in the better part of 100 years. And they're ONLY found in the former Straits Settlements. You're talking about $1,000 apiece nowadays.

These are what Peranakan tiffin carriers look like. Enameled, hand-painted with flowers, and gold-leaf decals. VERY VERY expensive these days. And the prices are SHOOTING through the roof. In the past 2-3 years, they've more than tripled!

 

WOW! I'd better watch for these!
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What IS a tiffin then????

 

'Tiffin' is an old, Victorian-era English slang-word for lunch, snacks, nibbles, or afternoon tea.

 

Ah!
For some reason I was thinking these were Asian in origin.

 

They are. The term originated in British Colonial India, and the British Straits Settlements (Malaya & Singapore) in the 1800s...as did the carriers.

 

OH! Ok.

 

I'm starting to feel as though it might be good to get into the bento box market now.

 

Stacked-bowl/container carriers like this date back CENTURIES in Chinese and southeast Asian culture.

These enameled steel, and brass ones, were invented in Victorian times. MILLIONS were made locally, in India, Europe, and China, and shipped and posted throughout S/E Asia. Some could get EXTREMELY elaborate and HIGHLY decorated. Those are the ones - in EXCELLENT condition - which are worth GIGANTIC bucks today.

 

Are they always 4 tiered?

 

Here in California we call those Stacking Enamel Miner's lunch pails.
New word Tiffin carrier. Thanks.

 

I'm starting to want take out !!

 

I've seen them before, but never anything that big. Plainer ones are still being used in India to haul lunch, or were the last I heard. I like 'em.

 

I spent a lot of my early school years reading everything I could get my hands on. And I have a specific memory of my first encounter with the word "tiffin." Some book about a young boy spending his days floating around a marshy area in rural England. The reference seemed to have some relationship to food, but the word was so exotic to me I vowed to remember it.

 

Interesting, i had no idea what a tiffen was till half way through this thread, now i know!