{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O370802"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O370802/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2015HR2355/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2015HR2355/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2015HR2355","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2015HR2356","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2015HR2357","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2015HR2358","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2015HR2359","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2015HR2360","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2015HR2361","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2018KN5563","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O370802/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O370802","accessionNumber":"W.81-1919","objectType":"Tea caddy","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"The mineral water springs at Spa in modern-day Belgium were among the first to attract substantial numbers of visitors.  Firstly people came for their health but later also as tourists.  Makers were quick to spot an opportunity to sell small items as souvenirs.  In 1717 a new Pump Room was opened and even more people flocked to the town, which was to give its name to all resorts with mineral springs (like Bath and Tunbridge Wells) and later to any resort which offered care to the body. In the 18th century painted decoration became highly popular. It was relatively cheap to produce, colourful and eye-catching.  This form of decoration, which imitates engravings or drawings in paint, became popular after about 1780. The small scenes on this caddy show three of the best-known springs of mineral waters in the neighbourhood. Tea caddies and writing or toilet boxes were the most popular form of souvenir.","physicalDescription":"A tea caddy with hinged lid, oval in plan, the exterior originally of varnished birch, the top, back and and front decorated with polychrome views of local scenes around Spa. The ground of the body and the sides of the lid have now been painted over in buff oil paint, ornamented with polychrome flowers on the sides. \nThe oval body has a tight-fitting, hinged lid, with a small lock at the front (key now missing). The base is covered in a replacement green baize. The  interiors of both the body and the lid are lined with foil. \nThe caddy was originally finished as varnished birch (which remains on the lid), on which were painted rectangular reserves of pink, outlined with fine black lines. Centred within the pink reserves are oval panels outlined in cream and painted in polychrome oils with scenes of noted sites around Spa.  Each of these is identified by an inscription but these are badly worn and can only be read by reference to similar views on other souvenir items (notably the V&amp;A box, inv. no. W.32-1916). See under 'Inscriptions' for supposed identification. The sides of the caddy are painted with a pansy on one side and with a sprig of forget-me-not on the other. This painting is on top of the over-painting and may, or may not, replicate what was originally painted on the sides.  The top and bottom edges of the sides are painted with a narrow black border, with gilded leaves with grapes or cherries.  The regularity of this suggests that it may have been applied as a transfer in some way. \n\n<u>Condition</u>. Much over-painted, presumably because of damage to the original surface.  The sides of both the body and the lid are now overpainted in a buff oil paint, thickly applied, in the areas that were originally varnished birch. The panels of pink on the front and back of the caddy have been given a second black line as outline, but at the top, this could only work if the second line were painted on the side of the lid, which has not been done, so the framing appears incomplete. The top of the box shows considerable overpainting on the pink area but the background has been left untouched.To the PL side of the front panel, the later painting has flaked off, showing the birch ground and a single, vertical, red line. This and four other lines equally spaced to either side of the main panel on back and front, are visible through the upper paint layer, raising the question as to whether these are actually join lines in the birch box,perhaps disguised with a painted red line.  If so, this might indicate that the box had been made in four panels and the painting perhaps done before these were joined, although that seems a difficult sequencing of work.  It is not clear whether painted lines alone would show through to the extent that these lines do. Normally, such boxes would have been made of a single sheet of birch, steamed and wrapped round a block to achieve the continuous curve. These would normally show only a single join. \n","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"birch","id":"AAT11973"}],"techniques":[{"text":"painting","id":"x30598"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Birch, paint","categories":[{"text":"Tea, Coffee & Chocolate wares","id":"THES48886"},{"text":"Household objects","id":"THES48939"},{"text":"Woodwork","id":"THES48877"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"FWK","id":"THES48597"},"images":["2015HR2355","2015HR2356","2015HR2357","2015HR2358","2015HR2359","2015HR2360","2015HR2361","2018KN5563"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"013","id":"THES302007"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Tea caddy","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Spa","id":"x41319"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1800","earliest":"1795-01-01","latest":"1804-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Given by Thomas Sutton, Esq., in memory of his wife","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"104","unit":"mm","qualifier":"Closed","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Length","value":"6","unit":"in","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"3.75","unit":"in","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Dimensions taken from departmental catalogue ( H: 4 1/8\", L: 6\". D: 3 3/4\")","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"La sauvenière prés de Spa","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"La sauvenière close to Spa","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"One the front of the caddy. This inscription is almost readable but is identified by comparison with the same view painted on W.32-1916. The subject was one of three famous mineral water springs in the neighbourhood of Spa."},{"content":"L......eror [largely illegible]\r\n","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"On the top of the box. From comparison with images painted on the box W.32-1916, this probably reads 'La Geronstere', another of the well-known springs.  Only the initial L is absolutely clear. "},{"content":"[Illegible]","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"On the back of the caddy.  From comparison with W.32-1916 and especially from the line of trees beside the road, this may by 'Le Tonnelet' ['the keg'], the third of the famous springs at Spa."}],"objectHistory":"Given to the V&A in 1919 by Thomas Sutton Esq. [Registered Papers 19/3782].\n\nSpa had been noted for its healing mineral water springs since the 14th century. By the 17th century it was already much visitied and by the end of the 18th century it had received the popular title of the 'café of Europe' from the Holy Roman Emperor, who visited in 1781. Its name became the generic word for any resort that offered healing waters. In England Bath and Tunbridge Wells became known as 'spas'.  It was a place of healing but also a resort. Small souvenir boxes and other woodwares were made at Spa from the mid-17th century, to provide for the visitors' desire to shop.  The earliest boxes and trinkets were in walnut, with inlay of brass and tin wire, and sometimes flowers of mother-of-pearl (see V&amp;A 126-1893 or W.42-1926). Spa became even more popular as a resort after the opening of the Pump Room in 1717 and the town attracted hundreds of visitors yearly. During the 18th century, painted decoration for souvenirs became very popular (see V&amp;A W. 21-1914 and W.32-1916). The taste of painting panels to look as if prints had been applied became popular after the 1780s.  The subjects of the designs on the box are the different springs of water found throughout the town (La Geronstere, La Souvenière and Le Tonnelet).  \n\nThe publication of prints (stipple engravings and later aquatints) within printed circular or oval mounts started in Paris in the very late 1760s. The adoption of these forms for stipple engravings or aquatints from the 1780s onwards may have been influenced by the creation of watercolours in these shapes which were made with the helpf of 'Claude glasses' - dark mirrors which allowed artists to see views within a composed, 'pictureseque' view.  The artist turned his back on a view and used the mirror to crop his view to the best pictureseque effect. Such glasses were often oval or circular and were favoured by artists such as the Rev. William Gilpin (1741-1807), whose views of Picturesque Scenery on the Banks of the Wye' were published in 1782 and were extremely influential in creating the taste for the picturesque and the appreciation of natural scenery. \n\n","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Tea caddy, oval in plan, with a hinged lid.  The chest was originally varnished birch, decorated on the front, back and lid with painted scenes local to the town of Spa. The sides of the body and the lid are now painted buff, with decoration of flowers on the sides.  ","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[{"text":"Spa","id":"x41319"}],"associatedPlaces":[{"text":"Spa","id":"x41319"}],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["W.81-1919"],"accessionNumberNum":"81","accessionNumberPrefix":"W","accessionYear":1919,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-08-10","recordCreationDate":"2009-06-24","availableToBook":true}}