The earliest storage containers for tea leaves came from China. These were round, square or flatsided bottle-shaped jars made of pottery or porcelain, and fitted with lids used to measure their contents. The term "tea caddy" emerged in the late 1700s. The word "caddy" evolved from the Malay-Chinese word kati, meaning a measure of about six hundred grams or about twenty-one ounces (1-1/3 pounds) of tea which filled a single-compartment wooden box.
Beginning in the seventeenth century many different materials were selected for making tea jars and tea caddies. Wood, silver, pewter, mother-of-pearl, papier-mache, lacquerware, and tortoise shell were used in addition to pottery and porcelain, which was the preferred medium. Tea jars produced at that time were either made in China for European export or in Europe, modeled on Chinese patterns.
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Answered by Deepthi
at
3:19 PM on December 10, 2008