H70.142.19

3 in HIGH x 5.5 in WIDE x 3.75 in DEEP
(7.62 cm HIGH x 13.97 cm WIDE x 9.52 cm DEEP)
Gift of Joan Pearson Watkins
H70.142.19


Tea caddy. Description: Brass tea caddy lined with tin, octagonal. laquered, bronzed metal colored. From the History Information Station: n: This tea caddy is a fairly airtight metal box for storing tea. Tea from India and China has been common in America since the Colonial period. On most of the Western frontier it was less popular than coffee. Westerners usually had to pay high prices for tea shipped by railroad. But in California tea was cheaper and more popular because it was imported directly from China. In fact, after 1850 tea importing was one of San Francisco's biggest business. To drink tea, people put the leaves in a teapot, added boiling water, and let it steep for ten or twenty minutes until it was very strong. Then they poured it carefully so the leaves would stay in the pot, and drank it with plenty of sugar or honey, and milk.
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