Why vintage tea tins make a rewarding collection

Tea tins have been part of British kitchen life for well over a century. In the days when tea was kept under lock and key as a valuable household commodity, grocers and merchants vied for custom with handsome decorated caddies as much as with the leaf inside. That means there are still thousands of them about — in house clearances, charity shops, car boot sales and antiques fairs — and most change hands for the price of a couple of coffees rather than a fortnight's wages.

The appeal is easy to explain. Tea tins are colourful, tactile and endlessly varied: round, square, octagonal, key-opening, slip-lidded, hinged. They take up very little room, so a single shelf can hold thirty or more, and because they were made to be used, they carry the small marks of ordinary life — a dent, a faded panel, a pencilled price on the base. That combination of good design, modest cost and easy storage makes them an ideal collection for anyone short of space but long on curiosity.

Choose a theme before you start buying

The quickest way to end up with a cupboard of odds and ends is to buy everything you like. A little discipline pays off, because a focused collection of forty tins will always look better on display than a random two hundred.

• By era. Late Victorian and Edwardian caddies, brightly lithographed 1930s to 1950s designs, and the bold geometric graphics of the 1960s and 1970s each have a distinct character.
• By shape. Cylindrical caddies, flat rectangular tins, novelty shapes, and the hinged biscuit-style tin with a lever lid.
• By colour or imagery. A wall of nothing but deep reds and gold, or a shelf of tins showing teapots, ships, flowers or far-flung destinations, is surprisingly striking.
• By function. Some collectors concentrate on tins that never held loose tea at all — souvenir tins, promotional tins, empty tins sold for household storage.

Pick two or three themes, write them down, and let the rest go. There will always be another tin.

Spotting damage before you part with money

Rust is a collector's chief enemy, so check a tin the way you would check a second-hand car. Look at the rims, the inside of the base and along the side seam, where moisture likes to sit.

• Rust: a light bloom can be treated at home; deep, pitted corrosion has already eaten into the metal and will keep spreading.
• Dents and distortion: slight dents are part of a tin's history, but a crushed body or a warped lid rarely sits right again.
• Lid fit: a slip lid should slide with a gentle twist. If it jams, it may already be swollen with rust; if it rattles loosely, it is probably not the original.
• Fading and lifting print: hold the tin in daylight and look for patchy colour where a label or a window display once bleached the surface.
• Repainting and reproductions: be wary of colours that are too bright, lettering that is too crisp, and modern fonts. A plastic liner or a suspiciously uniform finish usually points to a later novelty tin rather than a genuine period piece.
• Smell: tobacco, damp and perfume cling to tin interiors. Fine for display, but such a tin should never be used for loose tea again.

Cleaning your tins safely

Less is more here. Most tins need nothing more than a soft brush and a dry cloth. Where grime has built up, use a barely damp cloth with a drop of mild washing-up liquid, then dry the tin immediately and thoroughly — never soak it, and never put it near a dishwasher.

• Avoid metal polishes on painted or lithographed surfaces; they strip the lacquer and dull the colour permanently.
• Treat light rust with fine wire wool and a little light oil, working gently and following the direction of the surface. Live with the patina that remains.
• Handle paper labels with a dry soft brush only. Water will lift them.
• To reduce mustiness, stand an opened tin of bicarbonate of soda inside the caddy for a week, or tuck in a few sheets of newspaper and change them regularly.

Storing and displaying a collection

Where you keep your tins matters more than how often you dust them. Direct sunlight fades lithographed colour faster than anything else, so keep shelves away from south-facing windows. Steer clear of lofts, garages and damp cellars, where swings in temperature and humidity encourage rust from the inside out.

• Aim for a stable indoor environment, roughly 45 to 55 per cent relative humidity, with silica gel sachets tucked behind the display and replaced every month or two.
• Place a square of acid-free tissue inside each tin to absorb residual moisture.
• Never stack tins directly on top of one another. Use felt or foam pads, and avoid rubber bands, which release sulphur and stain metal.
• A glazed cabinet keeps dust and kitchen grease at bay. Rotate what is on show every few months so nothing sits in the light indefinitely.

Growing and caring for your collection

Keep a simple record as you go: a photograph, the price paid, where you found it and any detail you know about the design. That note takes thirty seconds and will be invaluable in ten years' time, both for insurance and for your own memory. Handle tins with clean, dry hands and wash off any kitchen grease before it sets. If you buy a job lot, sell or swap the duplicates rather than letting them clutter the shelf — a collection improves by subtraction as often as by addition.

Above all, enjoy the hunt. The best finds are rarely the rarest ones; they are the tins that catch your eye at a rainy car boot sale, cost a pound, and still make you smile when you look up from the kettle.