C.1860 Molded Opaline Russian Tea Caddy - Rare - Documented

This tea caddy is documented in Antique Colored Glass by Keith Middlesmas, 1971, on Page 99.

The height is about 5 1/4 inches. The base about 3 l/4 inches.

This molded glass was likely made in Russia but could be peking glass. This is not pressed glass but rather molded glass.

Tea caddies in glass are rare. Tea caddies showing chinese figures and chinese influence are even rarer. Tea caddies showing the country and area of manufacturer is just great historically.

The Cyrillic writing == "4AN KRXTHNHCKIN". The R is backward.== roughly translate to "tea from Kyakhta". Kyakhta was an old trading post on the Selenga River in Siberia close to the Mongolian border. This tea caddy was packaged in Kyathta.

The other calligraphy writing may be Chinese, but I am not sure.

To describe The 4 different scenes.

The 1st is the the Cyrillic writing as described above. The 2nd scene has a picture of a Chinese lady The 3rd side also has a picture of a different chinese lady The 4th side has some sort of Chinese (or similar) writing.

The Russian treasured their tea in the 19C and glass tea caddies prevented the moisture from ruining the very very expensive tea leaves.

Whoever purchases this item will have a historically rare item

Condition:

1.Originally this item had a metal cap. The cap is missing.

2.The neck portion of the bottles has several very small chips as can be seen in the pictures.

3.Other than the chips mentioned above the bottle has no cracks, no repairs, no restoration.

Item ID: T187