Silver Tea Caddy c. 1937

Here’s Michael Fenga’s "Silver Tea Caddy," an illustration of a geometric vessel with heraldic ornamentation. I'm wondering about the process here. The drawing’s got an air of precision. Just imagine the artist, Michael Fenga, carefully plotting each line to capture the metallic sheen of the silver. I see the texture he creates, mimicking the cool smoothness of the metal, the way light catches on its surface. The symmetry! It’s like he's making a kind of portrait, not of a person, but of an object, celebrating its form and function. I can imagine Fenga thinking about the long history of the tea caddy. He is positioning himself within a tradition of craftsmanship and design, echoing the techniques of technical drawing, the graphic style of commercial art. There’s a delicate balance here. Ultimately, it's like Fenga is asking us to look closely, to appreciate the beauty and ingenuity in the everyday. It's a conversation across time, where artists inspire and build upon each other's visions.