teapoy

{{Short description|Type of table}}

File:Teapoy with four oval tea caddies MET DP-14129-169.jpg]]

{{wiktionary|teapoy}}

A teapoy is an item of furniture. The word is of Indian origin, and was originally used to describe a three-legged table, literally meaning "three feet" in Hindi.OED, teapoy, etymology: from Hindi tīn three + Persian. pāï foot.{{sfn|Gloag|Edwards|1991|p=664}}

By erroneous association with the word "tea" in the middle of the 19th century,{{sfn|Gloag|Edwards|1991|p=665}} it is also used to describe a table with a container for tea, or a table for holding a tea service. In the 19th century, the word was also sometimes applied to a large porcelain or earthenware tea caddy, and more frequently to the small bottles, often of enamel, which fitted into receptacles in the caddy and actually contained the tea.{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Tea-poy|volume=26|page=486}}

Teapoys were small three-legged tables with a tabletop turning into a shallow box by 1820s that turned into a tea chest by the middle of the 19th century, at the same time woods (rosewood, mahogany, walnut) were supplemented by the papier-mâché, resulting in highly decorative designs with inlays of ivory and mother-of-pearl.{{sfn|Gloag|Edwards|1991|pp=664-666}}