A beautiful Victorian treen three-tier spice tower with fine historical patina, and complete with its original labels "Ginger" and "Cinnamon".  It consists of three containers, each screwing into the one below, and a truly elegant architectural screw-on lid.  This is a piece of fine-tuned craftsmanship, and the turned sycamore drum-shaped compartments are in great condition, and they screw easily together - with just one container missing its label.

History

Treen, "of a tree", is a generic name for small vintage and antique handmade functional household objects made of wood. Today, treen is highly collectable for its beautiful patina and tactile appeal. Before the advent of cheap metal wares in industrialized societies, and later, plastic, wood played a much greater part as the raw material for common objects. Turning and carving were the key manufacturing techniques. The selection of wood species was important, and close-grained native hardwoods such as box, beech and sycamore were particularly favoured, with occasional use of exotics, such as lignum vitae for mallet heads.

Anything from wooden plates, bowls, small boxes, spoons, shoehorns and chopping boards can be classed as treen. Much Victorian wooden kitchenalia is now classified as such in today's collectors market, such as our wonderful spice tower offered here. Their strongly functional and undecorated forms are now highly regarded by designers and collectors. We love treen.

Dimensions: Height 14.5cm  Diameter 9cm

Origin: UK

Material: sycamore

Manufacture: c.1850

Condition: excellent, with just one very small and inconsequential split in the base - see second image.