Topic: bowl type liner for what?

[Paul S.]

thanks...........so we'll go for this one being a sugar liner from within a tea caddy, possibly.        Obviously, has to be post c. 1830 ish, in view of the uranium, but I guess could be anywhere around the middle or second half C19.

[chopin-liszt]

When these rich folk locked their tea up in caddies they had both black tea and green tea - hence there normally being two receptacles for the tea itself, and the need for a mixing bowl - not for blending different blends together (who would mix earl grey and darjeeling  ) but for mixing the green and black teas together, before brewing.

[Paul S.]

hello Sue.......thanks for your reply .         It was only a rhetorical  statement, just to make the point - which I had originally considered - which in fact you appear to have now confirmed.......i.e. that the purpose of the bowl within a caddy was as a tea mixer in which to blend different sorts of tea.
So I take it that you are suggesting we now discount the sugar bowl idea, and come back to this being a true tea mixing bowl?

[chopin-liszt]

I suppose I should have referenced my source of info for that......... Eric Knowles.
It was an antiques tv programme in the uk.... the one with Sandy Toksvig, where collectors (members of the public) were challenged with identifying stuff.   

[Chris Harrison]

I know someone who stores tea bags in a Georgian caddy, and then uses the bowl to deposit the used bags after they've been squeezed out.

Let's face it, until someone finds an old user manual  or an indisputable literary reference, noone will ever really know what the bowl is for!