Member Article

History at the heart of Ringtons during antiques evaluation

North East tea merchant Ringtons delved into its rich history recently with the help of local antiques experts Anderson & Garland to launch a charity event organised by Rothbury Women’s Institute (WI).

‘Vintage Rothbury’ on Sunday 29th June 2014 will see Ringtons join forces with Rothbury WI, Anderson & Garland, and the North East Ambulance Service to hold a fun-filled vintage day to raise money for The Stephen Carey Fund, to install a number of life-saving defibrillators in rural Northumberland.

Ringtons is providing refreshments throughout the day by sponsoring the vintage tea room. The action-packed event will also include art exhibitions, family competitions, live music, vintage vehicle display, treasure hunt, village choir sing-along, pop up museums, and over 50 vintage and craft market stalls.

To launch the event, Ringtons invited expert Andrew McCoull from Anderson & Garland to its head office in Byker to find out more about some of its own prized archive items – a similar event will be a key part of the Vintage Rothbury event in June, with the public invited to bring along their own antiques for evaluation on the day.

During the evaluation at Ringtons head office, the first piece which caught the eye of Mr McCoull was a Regency rosewood tea box containing two original internal storage caddies for loose tea leaves and the extremely rare original glass blending bowl. Dating back to the 1830s, owners would have used the set to blend their own tea to their specific taste and keep it under lock and key, as tea was a rare commodity at the time.

A large collection of Ringtons tea caddies also traced the journey tea has undertaken from being a wealth-driven commodity in the early 20th Century, to being a cupboard essential and Britain’s favourite drink today. The oldest caddy dated back to the 1920s. Mr McCoull explained how the style and shapes of the caddies have changed over the years; with more decorative items emerging in the 1930s to attract custom as tea grew in popularity. The collection also included commemorative caddies for key British events such as King George VI’s coronation in 1937.

The Ringtons memorabilia included personal items from the company’s family archive including a suitcase owned by Ringtons’ founder Samuel Smith – the steel brown suitcase was evidently well travelled with stickers indicating travel from London to Bombay and a train sticker documenting a trip from London back to Newcastle.

Attending the evaluation on behalf of Ringtons was Fiona Harrison, the great granddaughter of Ringtons founder Samuel Smith. Fiona who has recently taken on the role of Company Archivist and Historian commented: “The Ringtons archive is packed full of letters, documents, photographs and company papers as well as some of our collectables such as Maling ceramics and tea caddies. As I am currently sorting through the archive it was really interesting to hear what Andrew thought of the items found. We know we are still missing several items from our history so are keen to see what our customers bring along to Vintage Rothbury from their own collections for our team to photograph and catalogue for our records.”

Andrew McCoull from Anderson & Garland added: “It is always fascinating when travelling back in time to trace an item’s roots and heritage and it was no different when looking at the various caddies, ceramics and documents held by Ringtons.

“We are thrilled to play our part at Rothbury WI’s charity day alongside such a well-loved local company and hope visitors come out in their droves with any antiques they’d like valued. It would be great if those who own any pieces of Ringtons history would bring those along too.”

Rothbury WI President Kate Holt said: “The support of Ringtons and Anderson & Garland, two very significant local companies at our event has been an enormous help. Their huge generosity in time, expertise and goods has been the foundation stone of everything else we have organised and we really hope residents from all over will come and have a cuppa – and a slice of WI cake of course - with us on the day.”

Vintage Rothbury will take place in Rothbury town Centre at 11.00am – 4.00pm on Sunday 29th June.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Hayley Ford .