Antique Brass Chinese Tea Caddy. Maybe.

Hey folks.

Picked this today at the market. Sold as an antique brass Chinese tea-caddy. Certainly looks like one. No idea how old it is. My guess is early 20th century. it is quite intricate as you can see.

The cap/lid serves as a measuring-cup.

It was one of a pair of caddies (identical), but I could only reasonably afford one (that, and the other one had a hole in it).

Any ideas on age? Or is it a modern repro? No markings.







The interior and exterior have been thoroughly cleaned in as many ways as I know how. I intend to put stuff in here, so it has to be cleaned anyway.

 

I like it.

 

When you are curious about age of an object consider also posting pix pre-cleaning and pic of bottom.

 

Here's pre-cleaning, although I'm not sure how much of a difference it makes.


This was taken literally five minutes after I bought it.


This is the cap before I scraped all that crap out of it.


This is the underside before I cleaned it. I didn't bother posting a picture of the bottom as there is literally nothing there to read. There's no markings on this thing ANYWHERE.

I really dunno what to think. I suspect it probably is old, but I doubt it's very old.

 

Thanks-I couldn't find a twin to it which probably means it isn't from Pier One etc. Bottom has no scratches from use but does have corrosion on edges meaning it was probably sitting on a shelf for a long time. Guess 20th C. but no idea if early or mid.

 

This is a first. Never posted something here without everyone jumping in with opinions before.

 

Many may be away for the holiday.

 

Oh yeah, I forgot. It's America's birthday, isn't it?

 

Yes it was...is....
239 years young.

 

can we see a closeup of the dragon's head and tail?

 

Dragon wraps around five panels. 6th panel has the moon or sun or whatever on it. I think it's the sun.

 

Would agree that it is a 20th century tea caddy and likely Chinese. Typically, I would expect to see the block letters, CHINA, on something like this. Not having it may mean that it is a bit newer. I think it was typically found on Chinese brass items from the 20s- 50s. I suppose it could also mean that it just was not an export item. If made for domestic consumption, I would doubt they would mark it as such.

 

Looks like the item took many man-hours to make. It is 9 or 10 separate pieces of brass soldered together very neatly. The design was likely punched in before the pieces were joined. Every little circle etc. was stamped on individually by hand.

 

Hi Brad, Springfield,

Yes, those were my conclusions as well. If I HAD to date this, my guess was the republican era of China, somewhere between about 1915-1935. I dunno how accurate that would be. I think S.A. is right with regards to the construction.

 

All that said the workmanship is sloppy , & the design is unappealing ....
to my eye anyways....it's no work of art !

 

Uh...ok.

Wow.

 

Showing examples of the base (even though there was no mark) is helpful. It shows wear, sometimes...

The workmanship is not exquisite...

An older item would show more detail and workmanship and wear... the design is very simplistic. Then again, items made for working class and tourists would fit that perfectly, so it doesn't mean it was not meant for daily use, anyone's guess when. I'm no expert.

I don't how old it is, or even how it was used - I''m only pointing out what I see...