This fanciful teacaddy and its corresponding incense burner and the 'Chinaman and Serpent' and 'Chinaman and Parrot' teapots were traditionally thought to have been inspired by a Saint Cloud porcelain teapot,¹ however, the Chelsea model differs considerably and it would seem more likely that Nicholas Sprimont, the proprietor of the Chelsea porcelain manufactory, adapted the present model from a Chinese blanc de Chine figure of Budai.

Only a small number of these tea caddies or tea 'jars' are recorded: two examples from the Wallace Elliot collection, sold Sotheby's, London, 24-25 May 1938, lot 266 (acquired by Judge Irwin Untermyer, and now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York) and lot 267 (now in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, accession no. C.46&A-1938); two were sold Sotheby's, London, 27 November 1951, lots 64 and 65, the latter subsequently sold in the collection of the Late Miss Margaret MacHarg, sale, Sotheby's, London, 16 May 1961, lot 148. For the example in the Katz collection, in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, see accession no. 1971.781a&b. For the related teapot, see lot 75 in the present sale.

1. See Klaber and Klaber, Summer Catalogue 2003, no. 1.