A caddy spoon is a type of spoon for use in taking and measuring dry tea from a tea caddy, usually small enough to fit inside the caddy. English examples were developed in the mid 18th century when the Chinese tea bottle was superseded by the tea caddy, having an opening large enough to accommodate a small spoon to dispense and measure the tea and when the cover (the thimble top) was no longer used as a measure. Caddy spoons were always required to be hallmarked, being excluded from the exemption of the English act of 1790 relating to small articles.

George John Cayley (1826-78), son of the MP Edward Stillingfleet Cayley, was an eccentric.. Besides dabbling in poetry and writing a light-hearted book on travels in Spain, he was a gifted artist (he illustrated some of his own books) and a craftsman known for his metalwork. In 1862 he and the painter George Frederick Watts worked together to design the challenge shield for a shooting championship at Wimbledon. He was also one of the more left-wing Cayleys of the 19th century – and a keen tennis player.

In 1870 he went to live in Algiers to try and improve his health. There he played tennis as long as his health permitted — “longer, it might be said” according to recollections of him in a 1909 edition of his Spanish travel book. This was shortly before lawn tennis as we know it became established. During spells in England he worked with a carpenter and cabinet-maker, William Button Maslen from near Swansea, to develop new types of tennis racket. In January 1875 the Edinburgh Review, which is still in existence, published his article Lusio Pilaris and Lawn Tennis, which was the first ever article on lawn tennis.