Mazawattee

Empty vintage tea tin (15x11x5.5cm). A highly collectible relic from early in Britain’s tea drinking history (interesting info at bottom of listing).

When you develop an obsession with supplying handmade watercolour paint in vintage tins, you eventually accumulate a stock of unsuitable ones (too deep, too shallow, not magnetic…). My paintmaking other half would like to open a tin museum, but I’ve decided we need to share the love and sell them as empty tins. They’re perfect for drawing and storing, and just looking pretty on your shelves.

Please note: Contents are for illustrative purposes only.

Shipping via Royal Mail tracked services. Your tracking number with be emailed to you once your parcel is on its way.

UK: £4 (reduced to £1 if ordered with an item of greater shipping value).
All other destinations: £16 (reduced to £4 if ordered with an item of greater shipping value).

The Mazawattee Tea Company, founded in 1887 by the Densham family, was one of the most important and most advertised tea firms in Britain during the late 19th century. Traditionally the origin of tea-drinking lies in China and the famous Tea Clipper ships raced across the seas to bring tea to London. In the 18th century, tea had become an important drink in Britain especially for the wealthy, but it was not until the 1850s (by which time tea plantations had been successfully established in India, especially in Assam, and from 1867 onwards in Ceylon) that a real expansion occurred.

John Boon Densham came up with the idea of using the word "Mazathawattee", perhaps based on the Hindi "maza", which means "pleasure or fun", and the Sinhalese "wattee", which means "a garden". This was shortened to "Mazawattee" and duly registered as a trademark for retail sales in January 1887. This was merely a start for he then had the idea of using a standard photo to advertise the brand. It is to many modern eyes a rather gloomy thing showing an aged, bespectacled and somewhat toothless grandmother with her supposed granddaughter and the compulsory cup of tea.

This photo became popular but was adjusted somewhat from the original photo. The photographer was M.B. Parkinson, a New York City photographer. The model for the grandmother was Mary Ann Clarke, the wife of an Islington bootmaker. The model for the child was to have been her granddaughter but she was too shy, and the photographer had to enlist the aid of the little girl next door, Alice Emma Nichols. The picture was called "Old Folks at Home".