William Hayley’s Tribute Tea-Caddy

William Hayley’s Tribute Tea-Caddy

Contributor: Clare Brant

Location: Cowper and Newton Museum, Olney, Buckinghamshire, UK

Description: This tea-caddy sits among domestic objects in the Cowper and Newton Museum in Olney, Bucks UK, a house museum which for twenty years was the residence of the poet William Cowper (1731-1800). It was donated in 2019 by a family descended from Cowper’s relations though it was not one of Cowper’s own possessions.

The box was commissioned after Cowper’s death in 1800 by his friend and biographer William Hayley (1745-1820) as a way of celebrating Cowper’s life, work, sensibility and friendships.

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