Tea chest

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Tea chest
Two women in London carry a tea chest to a wagon, 1943

A tea chest is a type of wooden case originally produced and used to ship tea to the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. The conventional tea chest is a case with riveted metal edges, of approximate size 500x500x750 millimetres. The term is now used more widely to indicate similarly-sized cases, including cardboard cases, produced for various home and commercial uses.

A tea chest holds 42 to 58 kilograms (tea),[1] the size depends on the origin and client. Sizes vary from 400×400×620 to 500×500×750 mm. The construction was plywood sheets, held at the edges with metal edges, riveted to the sheets. Internally they were lined with metal foil, and strengthened with inch-by-inch boards at the edges. There was no opening as such, one simply removed one of the sides. The foil was stated as lead in this Bushell's 1925 advertisement[2] but later changed to aluminium foil.

Tea chests full of tea were also shipped to where tea was sold by weight, rather than by packets.

Tea chests were one-trip affairs, so they were generally sold for non-food use.

During the 1950s throughout the UK, tea chests began to be used as basic basses in skiffle groups, such as the Quarrymen.

See also

References

  1. ↑ The Economist, (UK Magazine) (1994). Desk Companion. London: Penguin. p. 31. ISBN 0 241 00265 6. 
  2. ↑ "Bushells Blue Label Tea: Bushells Tea Factory". 


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