Regent Antiques

Teapoy

A Teapoy – is a small three-legged table with an attached tea caddy box on the tripod base. The tea caddy was used to store loose leaf tea and the table often served as a small tea table.

The word is not derived from ‘tea’ but from the Hindi phrase meaning ‘three-footed’. Teapoys came into fashion in the mid-18th century, often being made in British colonial India.

They became increasingly ornate and continued to be popular well into the mid-19th century when the name became associated with any stand with an attached box, even if it was on four legs not the traditional three.