Tea caddy, pair of tea caddies or tea canisters, ca. 1770
Photo by Peter Harholdt, 2004
Click to Enlarge

Photo by Peter Harholdt, 2004

  • Overview
  • Description
  • Further Information
Exhibitions
"Benjamin Franklin: In Search of a Better World," Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary traveling exhibition, 2005-2008.
An Image of Benjamin Franklin," University of Pennsylvania Hospital Antiques Show, 1963.
Note that only 214.01 was included in the exhibitions above.
Related Publications

Henkels, Stan V. & Son, Relics of Benjamin Franklin and Family Papers, Estate of Ellen Duane Davis, Deceased... To Be Sold... June 16th, 1924...." Second of the pair of tea caddies (214.02) is illustrated in this auction catalogue, and was sold at this sale to Henrietta D. Bache Pepper.

Talbott, Page, "The House that Franklin Built" (Antiques & Fine Art, Vol. VI, Issue 5, January-February 2006, pp. 232-38)

Talbott, Page, ed., Benjamin Franklin: In Search of a Better World (New Haven and London: Yale University, 2005) (companion book to exhibition of same title)

Provenance
The first of the pair was given to Independence National Historical Park by Mrs. Elizabeth Bache Coleman, 2930 Porter Street, Washington, DC, 11/01/1960. Mrs. Coleman was a descendant of Franklin's. The provenance of the caddy was described as from the Franklin/Bache households, to Benjamin Franklin Bache, to Jennie Bache Gould, to Elizabeth Bache Coleman.

"I send you two plated tea caddies and a sugar ditto from Sheffield..." (Letter from Benjamin Franklin to Deborah Franklin, July 4, 1771). See also a reference in his account book (APS/BF 85 p.6 #3) April 20, 1771, "for sundry plated ware had of Tudor, Sherburn & Leader of Sheffield."

The second of the pair was owned by Ellen Duane Gillespie and later her daughter, Ellen Duane Davis. It was sold as Lot 7 in the sale of her collection at the sale of Franklin artifacts at the Philadelphia auction house of Stan V. Henkels & Son, June 16, 1924. It was purchased at the Henkels sale by another member of the Franklin family, Henrietta D. Bache Pepper, and descended in her line to its present owner. That tea caddy is identical to the one above, with the exception of two inscriptions. On one side is inscribed "S.Bache / Daughter of B. Franklin" and on the underside, is "Property of / Dr. and Mrs. Edward Parker Davis" [Ellen Duane Davis].

postmaster@benfranklin300.org Terms of Use Credits