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List of Makers and Retailers

PACE, John (and Jane): Advertised as manufacturer of ‘every description of Pearl Ornaments, and Fancy Goods,’ including tea caddies, at 14 Newton Street, Birmingham, in Slater’s Directory of Birmingham, 1852/3, and listed as ‘Tortoise Shell, Pearl & Ivory Work Box, Tea Caddy &c. Manufacturer[s]’ in Hulley’s Directory of Birmingham, 1870. 

PADMORE, Thomas & Sons: Listed as ‘Tortoise Shell, Pearl & Ivory Work Box, Tea Caddy &c. Manufacturer[s]’ at 16 Little Charles Street, Birmingham, in Hulley’s Directory of Birmingham, 1870, and as ‘Pearl, Tortoiseshell & Ivory Wrkrs. and ornament & Caddy maker[s]’ in New Edmund Street, Birmingham, in Birmingham Trades Directory, 1873. 

PARDOE, Richard: Listed as ‘Pearl, Tortoiseshell & Ivory Wrkrs. and ornament & Caddy maker[s]’ in Caroline Street, Birmingham, in Birmingham Trades Directory, 1873. 

PARDOES: Advertised as ‘Jewellers’ and ‘Pearl and Tortoiseshell Workers, manufacturers of pearl and tortoiseshell caddies …’ at 22 St Paul’s Square, Birmingham, in Wrightson & Webb’s The Directory of Birmingham, 1846.  

PARKINS & GOTTO: (fl. c. 1845- c. 1910). Retailers (originally stationers) at 2 Hanway Street and 25 (later also at Nos. 24, 26 and 27, followed by 54, 56, 58, 60 and 62) Oxford Street, London. By 1899, factory premises at 56, 57 and 58 Rathbone Place, London. Billhead, 1861, claimed to hold London’s ‘largest and best assorted stock of papier mâché’. (The Bodleian Libraries, The University of Oxford, John Johnson Collection). Coromandel wood domed tea chest, c. 1865, with brass mounts; two canisters; brass strip on rear inner rim stamped ‘PARKINS & GOTTO * OXFORD ST LONDON’. (Witney Antiques, Witney; Chapter 5: Wood, Figure 5.9). Walnut domed tea caddy with splayed sides and bun feet, c. 1865; brass mounts; two compartments. (ebay, September 2007)  

PARSONS, Joseph: Listed as ‘Pearl, Tortoiseshell & Ivory Wrkrs. and ornament & Caddy maker[s]’ at 76 Coleshill Street, Birmingham, in Birmingham Trades Directory, 1873. 

PEACOCK, Robert: Cabinetmaker with premises near Somerset House in the Strand, London. Advertised sale of stock, including ‘inlaid Tea-Boxes, Caddies’ and ‘Tunbridge Tea-Boxes’, in the Daily Advertiser, 22 January 1773. 

PEARCE, J. R.: Label on mother-of-pearl and tortoiseshell tea caddy with silver mounts, c. 1790-1800, stating ‘Made by J. R. PEARCE, 77 Cornhill, London’. (Auction sale; source unidentified) 

PETER(S), Alexander: Cabinetmakers in Edinburgh, Scotland. Receipts for the supply of goods to the Earls of Moray include ‘a solid mahogany tea box with canisters’(for the Countess), £0-14-0, 30 July 1734, and a mahogany tea chest, £0-16-0, April 1735. (Private collection) (Frances Bamford, ‘A Dictionary of Edinburgh wrights and furniture makers 1660-1840’, Furniture History Society Journal, Vol. XIX, 1983) 

PETERS, W.& R. (later trading as R. Peters & Son and W. & E. Peters): Listed as ‘Manufacturers of tortoiseshell tea caddies, tea chests’ at 39 Hall Street, Birmingham in Wrightson & Webb’s The Directory of Birmingham, 1833, and as ‘tortoiseshell & ivory tea caddee & card case makers’ in Cecil Street, Birmingham, in the same directory for 1835 and 1839. R. Peters & Son listed in same directory for 1846, and as ‘manufacturers of tortoiseshell and pearl tea caddies’ in Shalder’s Birmingham Directory, 1854. W. & E. Peters (late R. Peters & Son), advertised as ‘Manufacturers of TORTOISESHELL & PEARL TEA CADDIES, TEA CHESTS, CARD CASES, WORK BOXES, TABLES, COMPANIONS, FOLIOS, PEARL AND TORTOISESHELL GLOVE & SNUFF BOXES. Paper Knives, Inkstands, Spectacle, lancet, and Cigar Cases. TRANSPARENT BOXES in every variety and size for Export, 38 Cecil Street, near the Hospital BIRMINGHAM. DEALERS IN MOTHER-OF-PEARL SHELL’ in Billings Directory of Devon, 1857. 

PHILLIPS, George: Listed as ‘tea caddee maker’ at 1 Court, Bull Street, Birmingham, in Wrightson & Webb’s The Directory of Birmingham, 1835. 

PITT(S), Richard: (fl. 1747-92). Pewterer; at time of death in 1792, at 61 Shoe Lane, London. Business subsequently carried on by his wife. Britannia metal (pewter) caddy, c. 1780-1800; bright-cut engraving, with painted and lacquered blue decoration; shield on front with initials ‘JJJ’; bears Pitt’s mark. (Private collection; Chapter 18: Pewter, Figure 18.7) 

PLANTA, John (b. Jamaica, 1764): (fl. 1789-1824). Cabinetmaker; received into the Moravian Church community on the Fulneck estate, Pudsey, Yorkshire, 1798. Made tea chests and caddies, mahogany flax spinning wheels (often with printed label in drawer stating ‘JOHN PLANTA AT FULNECK near LEEDS’), bellows, embroidery frames, fire screens, workboxes, writing desks and drawing room pieces, often embellished with inlaid wood, ivory and metal. Also repaired furniture. Accounts for Fulneck Boys School, June 1822 to August 1824, show bills for ‘Tea Caddy cleaning - - 9’, 11 June 1822; ‘Tea Caddy varnishing 1-3-6’, 29 May 1824; ‘Tea chest 1-3-8’, 14 February 1824. Accounts dated 1824 include supply of tea chests (at £1-0-0d per chest) to Miss Moorehouse and Miss Shakelton of the Girls School at Fulneck. (Fulneck Archive) (C. Gilbert, ‘John Planta of Fulneck, Yorkshire’, Furniture History Society Journal, Vol. 4, 1970, and C. Gilbert, ‘Vernacular Furniture, Selected Writings’, Journal of the Regional Furniture Society, 2001) 

POTTER, William: Cabinetmaker at Cornhill, London. Inlaid mahogany tea chest modelled on Carlton House, London, 1786; two inlaid wooden canisters, also in form of houses; underside of each canister lid with mother-of-pearl disc, one engraved ‘Made by William Potter from Cornhill in LONDON 1786’, and the other ‘Made Wm Potter L 1786’. (Museum of London; Chapter 5: Wood …, Figure 5.116a and b) 

POTTS, John: (fl. 1761-1800). ‘Upholder. At His Paper Hanging Warehouse, The Black Spread Eagle, King Street, Covent Garden, London’; also traded in Toddington, Bedfordshire in 1760s and early 1770s. Trade card, c. 1760, shows tea chest. (Heal, pp. 142, 143) 

POTTS, William: (fl. 1776–93). Cabinetmaker at 11 Compton Street, Soho, and later at 14 Old Compton Street (1792), London. Supplied two tea chests to Mrs David Garrick (wife of actor, David Garrick), 1786–87. (DEFM) 

POUPARD, Andrew: Pawnbroker in Queen’s Street, Tower Hill, London.  Advertisement in The Times for auction sale of stock-in-trade and household effects to take place in Ware, Hertfordshire, 3 January 1785, included ‘about sixty Mahogany Tea Chests’. (Chapter 3: Making …) 

POVEY, George: Listed as ‘Pearl, Tortoiseshell & Ivory Wrkrs. and ornament & Caddy maker[s]’ at Court 8, Ward Street, Birmingham, in Birmingham Trades Directory, 1873. 

PRICE, John: (fl. 1735- c. 1758). Upholsterer at ‘The Three-Chairs, & Cabinnet in Catherine-Street in the Strand’, London. Trade card, 1756, offering ‘All Sorts of Standing Beds, Desks, Book-cases, Chests of Drawers, Tea Chests …’. (DEFM and Heal, pp. 144-5)  

PYNER, Francis Snr: (fl. 1762-86), Francis Jnr: (fl. 1783-96). Upholders and cabinetmakers ‘at the Tent, near George Yard, [37] Lombard Street, London’. Trade card, 1784, offering ‘all sorts of Tea Boards & Tea Chests’. (DEFM and Heal, pp. 144, 146)