Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Caddy spooning

One of these days, when my ship comes in (it will be a tea clipper, no doubt), I am going to sink some money into some world-class tea accessories. Until then, I'll happily wander around collecting the occasional affordable tea trinket, such as this new tea caddy spoon I found at World Market over the weekend.

This one has a nice feminine look about it, and I like both the ladle shape of the piece as well as the etched design in the bowl of the spoon.

I have only a few caddy spoons, including the one at top, a souvenir from The Tea House in Covent Garden, London; the small leaf-shapped caddy spoon, a tea room souvenir; and the everyday, all-purpose, Republic of Tea caddy spoon, the one which I have used most often for measuring tea. (There's also one hanging on the side of a silverplate tea caddy I bought a few months ago, but it's really quite ordinary.) I was looking up something about Queen Victoria on the web the other day and, quite by accident, came upon this wonderful page of caddy spoons and their history. The page goes nowhere because it's apparently being updated, and I couldn't find a new version, but the page alone is worth seeing for the lovely caddy spoons. Here's the link if you'd like to pay a visit yourself. Does anyone happen to have one of those gorgeous cap-shaped caddy spoons? My favorite, no surprise, is the one made in the Victorian period. Do you have a favorite spoon to measure your tea? If so, what does it look like? I'd love to know!

5 comments:

  1. What a great idea! Very nice post! I have a few tea caddy spoons, but the one I use every day is very similar to the one at the bottom of your photo. "1 cup of perfect tea" is on the handle.

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  2. Thanks for sharing your caddy spoon collection, and the link to view others. What fun! I'll have to gather mine together - I have the same one from Covent Gardens that you have - great souvenir!
    Nancy

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  3. That is an interesting page on the caddy spoon collection. The cap-shaped spoon is great, isn't it? I just use my "1 cup of perfect tea" spoon most of the time. Sometimes I use my traditional bamboo spoon for green tea. Thanks for showing us your collection.

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  4. Ooh - very nice detailing in the bowl! I have one tea scoop that I adore. It has a very short handle and a fat, wide bowl.

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  5. I think I'd like to start collecting antique caddy spoons. Loved this post!

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