Object Description
A harewood marquetry tea caddy with Royal Provenance, of oval form with a hinged lid opening to reveal two zinc lined compartments, decorated in fruitwood and boxwood marquetry with classical motifs including winged palmettes and foliate scrolls, a paper label attached inside the lid states ‘Given by Queen Charlotte to Edward Harding (husband of Sarah Bawtree) Librarian at Frogmore’. English, circa 1790.
Edward Harding (1755-1840) was engraver, publisher and librarian to Queen Charlotte.
This piece comes with a copy of an article by Jane Roberts ‘Queen Charlotte and Edward Harding’, Chapter 15 (pp146-159)in ‘Burning Bright: Essays in Honour of David‘, UCL Press, 2015. With an accompanying letter from her stating that this tea caddy is the one referred to on page 158 and described ‘a fine oval marquetry tea caddy’.