Tea caddy with cover 1886 - 1905

This tea caddy with cover was made by Christopher Dresser, likely in England during the late 19th century. Dresser was a prominent figure in the aesthetic movement, which valued beauty and artistic taste above all else. Looking at the caddy, we can see its striking pink color, unusual geometric form, and gilded details. These features challenge Victorian-era aesthetic preferences for ornate, naturalistic designs. It's likely Dresser designed this for a middle-class consumer and he was trying to produce something more attuned to emerging tastes. Dresser's caddy reflects the era’s changing social values, the rising middle class, and the evolving role of design in everyday life. Historians can use design history, trade catalogs, and consumer culture studies to understand the full context of this unusual object. These are some of the many resources that help us decipher the meaning of art as something deeply rooted in its social and institutional moment.