Tin Types

Biscuit tins have been a staple in British homes since Huntley & Palmers made the first decorative tin in 1831.  As Americans, we're more likely to have grown up with a ceramic cookie jar than a decorative tin, but there is something undeniably lovely about a kitchen shelf lined with pretty boxes filled with yummy things to eat or drink.  

It's something I have long admired about the British homes I entered during my time living there, and also remember fondly about my own grandmother's house as well.  Granted I was a tea and cookie lover long before I lived in England, but I grew a much greater appreciation for the ritual of afternoon tea during my time in that dear country.

    My tea & biscuit tin collecting days first began when I was a little girl and my mother got the notion in her head that she shouldn't go to the store and buy new tins for Christmas cookies every year when the local "junk stores" were filled with beautiful vintage tins for just pennies.  So for several years going to the junk stores to load bags with the most beautiful tins that would later be filled with cookies and given as gifts became a favorite tradition of ours.  

    Later when I moved out, I decorated my own bare kitchen in my first apartment with wooden tea boxes and candy tins as they emptied.  Something about having them on the walls made the kitchen seem so much cozier.  Sometime during all this, my mother remarked that the junk stores no longer carried tins (it had been many years at this point since we'd last looked) and she wished she had kept some for her kitchen.  And, so we searched together or I brought them home as souvenirs from my travels and her kitchen became cozy too. 

Now, all these years later, I still have my tins and have added a few more into the mix, and I use them not only for tea and cookies, but for other things around the house as well.

When I spotted this Horner Tea Tin print fabric at Hancock's I immdiately recognized some of the tins in my own collection and knew it would make the perfect autumn dress.  It was a perfect day for photos as well and I got so many beautiful pictures that I didn't get the chance to post them all last autumn, so I thought this would be a good time to share my love of tins and the unseen photos of this dress.

Outfit Info:  Robert Kaufman Library of Rarities Vintage Tea Tins Fabric from Hancock's-Paducah. YeMak Cardigan.  Sewing Pattern is Butterick Retro B5748. Bettie Page shoes.  Viviene of Holloway Petticoat.

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• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biscuit_tin
• https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/biscuit-tins-a-bite-sized-history/#slideshow=562394146&slide=0
• https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-art-of-the-biscuit-tin-171494824/