Teapoy of walnut, with circular, gadrooned top in the form of shallow urn, on a tripod stand; with label of T.H. Filmer, 34 Berners Street, London.

The tea poy is formed of a circular box on a tripod stand with spiral-twist column. The box is in the form of a shallow vase, with concave sides about a convex, gadrooned lower section. The lid, veneered on the inside, is fitted with a lock and there is a keyhole on the vertical upper section of the box.

The teapoy is of solid and veneered walnut (including burr walnut), the carcase wood not visible but probably beech or birch. The feet of the tripod base are of pad form, raised on small brass castors. The legs are pentagonal in section, with pronounced, angled knees. Between them is a turned finial below the main stem, and the inner ends of the legs are set with small, turned bosses. The stem rises from a gadrooned collar; its inverted baluster shape is carved with spiral fluting. The body of the teapoy is in the form of a shallow classical vase, the base gadrooned, the flat, hinged lid is veneered with burr walnut with a cross-banded down-curving edge of plain walnut. The inside of the lid is veneered with burr walnut, with a slightly recessed section within a wide border. The interior of the teapoy shows sloping sides, running down to a circular tray with four circular holes, supporting the fittings, of which only two caddies remain. The interior is lined with red cotton velvet (probably and addition). The caddies are of thin walnut, steam bent into a drum shape and with a brass piano hinge across the lid. The insides of the caddies are tinned and both carry lables on the base (see marks) for the firm of T.H. Filmer of Oxford Street, London.

Thomas Henry Filmer established his upholstery and cabinet making business at 34 Berners Street in 1835 and is listed there in London Street Directories in 1837 and 1839. He is listed at No. 28 Berners Street in the Post Office Street Directory of 1846, with both Nos. 28 & 32 Berners Street listed in the 1854 edition. By the time of the 1866 edition the firm has become Thomas Henry Filmer & Sons, upholsterers &c. 28, 29, 31 & 32 Berners Street W. & 34 Charles Street, Middlesex Hospital, W.

Several pieces of furniture survive with the firm's label, which is either on printed paper for earlier pieces, or a stamped oval brass label giving 28, 32 & 54 Berners St. Oxford Street. These surviving pieces include examples of extending tables, using the method patented in 1835 by Robert Jupe for increasing the diameter by inserting extra leaves.

Although T.H. Filmer is not listed as an exhibitor at the Great Exhibition held in London in 1851, Filmer and Sons did participate in the London International Exhibition in 1862 where their display included an extending table using a screw and cog mechanism by Samuel Hawkins, illustrated in The Art Journal Illustrated Catalogue, 1862, page 58. According to the Official Illustrated Catalogue of the International Exhibition, London, 1862, vol. II, Class XXX, p.12, some of the furniture exhibited by Filmer & Sons was based on prize competition drawings by students of the South Kensington School of Art.

The firm also exhibited at the Exposition Universelle held in Paris in 1867 where their display included another novel example of furniture design, a 'fauteuil' or conversation seat . This was composed of two sofas and two armchairs, which could also be used as separate pieces, a design which was selected for praise by The Art Journal Illustrated Catalogue 1867, p. 110.

Teapoys were invented as drawing room pieces of furniture in the early 19th century, allowing hostesses to offer their guests different types of tea, or blends of a couple of types. In design, they were often closely related to work boxes on stands.

This tea poy, or small table for the storage and use of loose tea, was part of the furnishings of a drawing room or parlour. The carved mouldings and spiral twist stand show that the tea poy was in the Jacobean revival style, very fashionable in the 1840s, as was the use of walnut as a decorative veneer. The size and shape, and the use of castors, made the tea poy a practical piece of furniture which could be moved into position for making and serving tea. The interior is fitted with removeable tea caddies and with spaces for cut-glass bowls. These bowls, which are now missing, were used for mixing tea and for sugar. T.H. Filmer, whose label is stuck to the underside of the caddies, established a cabinet making and upholstery firm in Berners Street, near Oxford Street, London, in 1835 and the firm remained in business until at least the late 1860s.

CIRC.243:A-C-1963