Description:
A rare painted tartanware tea caddy, with integral wooden Scottish hinge, made by C. Stevens and Sons of Laurencekirk, Box Makers to the Queen, the painting to the top depicting the coming of the railway to Aberdeen Circa 1850.

Origin: Scotland

Circa: 1850.

Materials:

Size: It measures  8.5 inches wide: 22 cm wide .

Condition: the box retains its much of its original decoration and varnish but there are some losses. Although the caddy retains much of its original leading it is missing its supplementary lids. There is a crack in the lid near the hinge which has been crudely repaired in the past. However, the structure is stable, and in our view further restoration could reduce the historic integrity of the caddy.   See detailed photos.

for another  example of a Laurencekirk caddy

see: http://hygra.com/uk/tc/tc106/

TC106
An important and rare Laurencekirk Scottish tea chest by C. Stiven having wooden hinges to both the chest and the lift out canisters Circa 1810.
See also: Boxes Painted by Artists  

The top of the caddy is painted with a picture depicting Aberdeen: in the foreground is the then new railway bridge. The railway came to Aberdeen in 1850. In the background is the city of Aberdeen.

Hand coloured print depicting the same scene by Lizars Sc of Aberdeen, published  by William Mitchell Aberdeen.

Detail:

 

Stiven's boxes usually  as here have an embossed mark on the facing, near the lock, either as C. Stiven, Charles Stiven and Sons, Stiven and Son, or variations. The word Laurencekirk is also stamped. Even after the father's death, his name remained on the label. 
The caddy is stamped on one side of the lock: "C. STIVEN & SONS LAURENCEKIRK" and on the other side: "BOX MAKERS TO HER MAJESTY".

This caddy is featured in our comprehensive book on antique boxes and tea caddies   published by Schiffer in 2003. Antique Boxes, Tea Caddies, and Society, 1700--1880 
Antigone Clarke & Joseph O'Kelly, ISBN: 0764316885

At the time of writing the book we did not know the identity of the scene. It was only later when I was looking at a charming diary/scrapbook kept by a 19th Century Scottish girl that I came across the coloured print depicting the scene on the caddy.

The first page of the diary/scrapbook has a door which opens to reveal a young lady holding a petition in her hand. 

 Google earth shows the Satellite picture: 

Wellington Suspension Bridge, spanning the Dee at Craiglug in the vicinity of Ferryhill, 1½ mile below Dee Bridge, was erected in 1831 at a cost of £10,000, and is 220 feet long by 22 wide. - The Railway Viaduct (1848), on the Aberdeen section of the Caledonian, crosses the Dee transversely, 3 furlongs above the Suspension Bridge, and designed by Messrs Locke & Errington, now consists of 7 irongirder arches, each about 50 feet in span, with two land arches at its northern end.- www.geo.ed.ac.uk/scotgaz/towns/townhistory617.html 

This print is one of a number of views from the volume called : 'Views of the Ports, Harbours & Watering Places of Great Britain' by Finden. W. Bartlett was the artist of most of these views.

This print shows a magical view of Aberdeen above the chain bridge in North East Scotland. The print shows the Chain Bridge before the arrival of the Railway in 1850.

Detail:

This print is included with the caddy.

There are some recent photos of both the Chain Bridge and the Rail Bridge at
www.panoramio.com/photo/4348602 

The Scottish Box owes its distinction to a remarkable man, James Sandy and its existence to another remarkable man, Lord Gardenstone. Its commercial viability was nurtured by a gifted craftsman, Charles Stiven and promoted by the dynastic family Smith. 

James Sandy died in 1819, at the age of 53, an acknowledged genius and a convivial man. This last quality must have been difficult to maintain as, throughout his life, James Sandy had to fight against tremendous odds. Due to an accident and the inappropriate administrations of a quack doctor, James lost the use of one of his legs, when he was a child of twelve. This infirmity did not deter him from busying himself making violins and other musical instruments, in spite the fact that the only tools he had were very rudimentary. He triumphed over his primitive work conditions and achieved a degree of success early on in his life. This enabled him to furnish his work bench to a superior professional standard, which made it possible for him to produce objects of high quality. He was musical himself and his striving to understand the importance of scientific acoustic principles in the course of making instruments, must have contributed to his wanderings in the realms of science.

When James was seventeen, his family house was flooded. His mother tried to move him to a higher floor. This resulted in another accident and a second broken leg for the already crippled James. This additional affliction rendered James completely unable to walk. Undaunted, he continued to make the best use of the faculties he still possessed, mainly his intellect and his dexterity. Ensconced in his bed, which he adapted to double up as a work bench, he successfully tried his hand at making clocks, telescopes, tools, machines, and false teeth! He received an award for making a very serviceable false arm, for a man who lost his arm in an accident!

James Sandy had a reputation as a rather eccentric genius, who produced wondrous things and who hatched birds' eggs in his bed! This was a tall story developed after James had adopted an orphaned gosling, which grew up to be his pet goose and constant companion for many years. This "artist of distinguished eminence" as he was described on his tombstone, drew many visitors to his bedside. Inquiring foreign travelers, as well as people from closer home, all admired James and his work. His room must have been a hubbub of exchange of ideas and bonhomie, as James liked to share both his inventions and his whisky with his visitors.

In exchange the visitors must have allowed him glimpses of the outside world, which stimulated his ingenuity and rendered his activities applicable to the necessities and fashions of the time. Thus James must have been aware of the habit of snuff taking and of the mess which unhinged snuff boxes could create in the pockets of his visitors. Furthermore, it is likely that he had seen and examined hand made "blind" hinges, on Scottish or other north European snuff boxes. The crudeness of the hinges, which defeated the object of keeping the snuff dry, must have puzzled James, who set about solving the problem.

It was James's grasp of both the disciplines of woodwork and clock making, which enabled him to develop a process for cutting the hinges with impeccable precision. James lived in Alyth, Perthshire in the East side of Scotland . News of his new hinge must have traveled quite fast to Kincardineshire, especially to Laurencekirk, which was only twenty miles North East of Alyth and where another highly skilled craftsman, Charles Stiven, lived and worked. It is just possible that Stiven had found his own way of perfecting the concealed hinge. He certainly never claimed to have done so. However, by the time of Sandy’s death, Stiven had adopted the use of this particular hinge to such an extent, that any box fitted with it was described as a Laurencekirk box.

Enter Francis, Lord Gardenstone. Lord Gardenstone had a distinguished legal career; he became a Law Lord and acquired civic distinctions in his native Scotland . He had an eccentric and expansive personality which could not be satisfied within the mere confines of the law. He was one of those gigantic characters which periodically, the 18th century threw up and nurtured. His inspired efforts changed the social landscape of his particular country, for the betterment of his fellow men. He produced literary works; he was a patron of the arts and he was a philanthropist in the most positive sense of the word.

Lord Gardenstone seemed to be on good terms with people in all walks of life, appreciating the skills and insights they could offer. He had two weaknesses, the first for snuff taking, the second, an extraordinary liking for pigs. One pig in particular he indulged to the point of allowing him to sleep on his bed and when he grew too large, to sleep on his clothes when he undressed for the night. In this, he had something in common with Sandy and his goose!

Stiven was born in 1753 and was persuaded to move to Laurencekirk by Lord Gardenstone sometime around 1783. He was already acclaimed as a snuff box maker and was obviously open to new ideas and designs, as his adoption of the concealed hinge testifies. Brixhe's artistic skills complemented Stiven's impeccable craftsmanship. Together they were capable of masterminding a business of aesthetic integrity and commercial viability.

Before Lord Gardenstone died in 1793, he had the satisfaction of seeing his brainchild, a thriving box making enterprise, well underway. The business continued successfully for about seventy years. When Stiven died in 1820, his work was continued by his son Jonathan who had most probably been trained by Brixhe in the art of painting. By the time Jonathan had taken over, the firm already had the Royal Warrant, which it continued to hold until its closure in 1868. The Stevens always upheld high standards of workmanship and had the distinction of showing their wares to the Royal family at Balmoral on several occasions.

Stiven's boxes usually have an embossed mark on the facing, near the lock, either as C. Stiven, Charles Stiven and Sons, Stiven and Son, or variations. The word Laurencekirk is also stamped. Even after the father's death, his name remained on the label.

Stiven had premises in the coach house booking office, from where he sold his wares. Travelers who bought his work must have been instrumental in spreading both the characteristic hinge and the particular quality of the work, further a field. The hinge soon reached the West of Scotland and established itself in Ayrshire. The first time the hinge was used in this area is clouded in legend. One version of events recounts how a Laurencekirk snuff box was repaired in Cumnock by William Crawford, who realizing the special quality of the hinge, set about trying to recreate it with the co operation of his boss Mr. Willie.

 

Escutcheon

There is a crack in the lid near the hinge which has been crudely repaired in the past. However, the structure is stable, and in our view further restoration could reduce the historic integrity of the caddy.  

There is a crack in the lid near the hinge which has been crudely repaired in the past. However, the structure is stable, and in our view further restoration could reduce the historic integrity of the caddy.  

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 It is interesting to note that the wood used to make the hinge is cut almost exactly on the quarter.

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Stiven's boxes usually  as here have an embossed mark on the facing, near the lock, either as C. Stiven, Charles Stiven and Sons, Stiven and Son, or variations. The word Laurencekirk is also stamped. Even after the father's death, his name remained on the label. 
The caddy is stamped on one side of the lock: "C. STIVEN & SONS LAURENCEKIRK" and on the other side: "BOX MAKERS TO HER MAJESTY".

 Although the caddy retains much of its original leading it is missing its supplementary lids.