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Description:
Ref: 733TC
http://hygra.com/box/733TC

Rare  complex Toleware tea chest of rectangular form. The outside is decorated with painted decoration depicting rural scenes on a  japanned ocher ground. 
Inside the chest there are three canisters. The two with round caps  would have been for tea; the central canister with hinged lid  would have been for sugar. The chest stands on gilded brass feet.

Origin: UK;  Circa: 1765; materials: toleware,  tin plated ferrous metal with japanned decoration. 
Size: 20.8 cm wide by 11 cm by 13 cm:   8.2 inches wide by  4.3  inches by   5.1 inches.

Condition: good overall and does not seem to have suffered the indignation of major restoration; some of the soldered joins have been re-soldered in the past. This process has locally damaged the japanned decoration there is some chipping to the paint. (see images)  The chest has its original working lock and key; see images and individual comments.

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Artist painters were employed to paint toleware. 

Toleware was the coming together of several developments in art and technology. 
The process of japanning is well described in Treatise of Japanning and Varnishing John Stalker and George Parker. Oriental lacquered panels were being imported and fashionable. Chippendale fielded imported panels in his in some of his furniture. 
Tinware sheet seemed to offer an ideal surface for decoration.     The invention of a roller rather than hammering enabled a more even surface to be achieved.

The decoration was baked on. 

Inside: the Chest has three lift-out canisters. The two outer with rounded caps would have been for tea. The central with hinged lid for sugar.

Toleware is tinned sheet steel or iron. The tin coating was applied to resist rust. The joints were achieved with solder of the same material a tin lead alloy.

The origin of  of the name  is the French  tôle peinte. -   painted tin The first tole ware was made early in the 18th centaury.   

Toleware is sometimes known as Pontypool ware.  A factory to produce toleware was established about 1732 in Pontypool  Monmouthshire.

The decoration process, sometimes called japanning,  although brittle, was  particularly durable.  The varnish and paint layers were hardened  by baking in special ovens.

When closely inspected a fine crazing craqueler of the painting is visible  

 

The sheet steel or iron would first have been tinned, that is covered in a thin coating of tin. First the  ferrous metal was pickled in acid to remove oxides and impurities. Tallow was commonly  used as a flux. The prepared sheet would then have been fabricated into the chest.

 Tinware canisters were often fitted to wooden caddies of the time. (see  http://www.hygra.com/tc2/tcchsd.htm  ).

The construction is clearly visible. The sides are made of  pieces of shaped tin plated iron sheet.

The joins are  soldered lap joints. 

One of the best  and fascinating accounts I have found of steel working is by Reinhold Rucker Angerstein.  (1753-1755) He seems have been an eighteenth-century industrial spy.  He recorded his findings and detailed observations in illustrated diaries and notebooks.   A translation of the Diary by Torston Berg  and completed his son, Peter was published by the National Museum of Science & Industry in 2001 ISBN 1 900747243.
There is a preview of the book at: Google Books.

"Many of the processes were kept secret to hinder competition! 
"In connection with Pontypool there is nothing further to be mentioned except that everything is kept very secret and all strangers are forbidden to approach the works. Anybody who intends viewing them must be prepared to use every possible means of achieving his wish.  I did not fail this time, but in the end I was caught by the implacable proprietor himself and was forced to witness the castigation of the workmen who let me in. "

"Sheet-metal fabrication in Pontypool
In pontypool there are two brothers by the name of Edward and Thomas Allgood who from black sheets fabricate bread baskets, tea trays, snuff boxes and various kinds of  of sheet-metal work that is cut and embossed in rings and then scoured, dried, varnished and painted in the same way as at Mr Baskerville's factory in Birmingham. An ordinary snuffbox with a golden flower painted on it is sold for 2 shillings."

Most surviving tole ware caddies are single and not chests:

See:

The chest is hand painted. The scene on the front depicts a man and woman in typical mid 18th Century clothes with cattle and sheep. It is an idyllic image of rural life. All is in apparent harmony. 

The paintings on the chest are cutting edge. 

The Tate Gallery write of George Lambert's "A View of Box Hill, Surrey 1733":

"Lambert was one of the pioneers of landscape painting in early eighteenth-century Britain.

This painting presents the landscape without the sorts of buildings –palaces or an aristocratic estate – which traditionally featured in such views. Is this evidence of a new appreciation of nature for its own sake? Certainly, landscape became the focus for discussions about the relationship between painting and poetry, and aesthetic ideas such as beauty and the sublime. 

See: www.tate.org.uk/
lambert-a-view-of-box-hill-surrey-n05981 

When closely inspected a fine crazing craqueler of the painting is visible.  

Detail: In the foreground a man sits fishing. In the background there is a mill house It is a typical rural landscape in the new style.

Under magnification the cracqueler 

The inside of the lid is lined with faded red velvet. This looks original.

 The canisters are tinned on the inside. Tinning is a thin coat of tin and is used to stop the thin iron sheet rusting.

The soldered lap joint is visible. At the edges the sheet is bent back on itself for strength.

The chest retains its original lock which is still working. The inside of the chest is painted red.

The canisters are painted. They are decorated with a floral motif. 

This was the beginnings of  neo-classicism. 

When closely inspected a fine crazing craqueler of the painting is visible. 

The canisters are enameled with a neo-classical theme of stylized floral garlands. 

A

The rounded lid of one of the canisters has been damaged by an attempt to re-solder. Solder melts at a temperature above that which the painted decoration can be safely brought!

Luckily whoever attempted this "restoration" recognized the error before they had caused too much damage.  

A

The underside is painted black.
The feet are attached with solder. 

The join at the corner has slightly opened. I do not think that the chest would benefit from restoration as the process of re-soldering would be almost impossible with out causing further damage to the painted decoration. 

All the painted surfaces are original and without restoration.

Same image as above slightly lighter
The join at the corner has slightly opened. I do not think that the chest would benefit from restoration as the process of re-soldering would be almost impossible with out causing further damage to the painted decoration. 

All the painted surfaces are original and without restoration.

 

The handle is made from cast brass. Much of its gilding survives.

The claw feet are also cast brass with gilding.

"Tea Chests": Plate CXXVIII and Plate CXXIX, T Chippendale  The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director 1754  engraved by M.Darley Sculp. 
The form of the tea chest was published by Chippendale. Generally the tea Chest contained canisters. These were often made from tole ware.

See: