Nick's Treasured Chest

Nick Flittner

Nick with daughter Anna and son James

A classic Indian Tea Chest came into my life on a sunny Tasmanian morning in 2016. It was Friday January 1^st 2016. I bought it off the internet. I liked the look of it – I thought it would look good in my old Victorian house in Launceston, the main city in northern Tasmania, which is the smallest state of Australia.

    It was a standard Tea Chest, the sort commonly used for moving house years ago. My brother-in-law, a removalist, hated these chests – they had metal strips along the edges which often caused cuts and tears, and the owners always filled them too full so they were too heavy to pick up. But I liked this Tea Chest – there was large stencilled lettering on every side. The man I bought it from, John, didn’t know much about it other than that he had bought it in September 2015 from someone in Longford, a small town about 15 minutes away from Launceston.

From the lettering I quickly learned that this Tea Chest came from Assam, and it was called Bordubi. I didn’t know what that meant, or even where Assam was, other than in India somewhere. I went back to the internet and discovered that Assam is a region in northern Indian where a lot of tea comes from. And Bordubi is a tea estate there. I couldn’t find much information, but I came across a photograph of the manager’s house on the Bordubi Estate, on a website run by a lady called Shona Patel. I e-mailed her…

Hello Shona - I've just bought an old Indian tea chest, and it is covered in writing. It's from Bordubi, and has a number - C06047B. On one side it says It Pays To Buy Good Tea! It has the trader's (I assume - or grower's?) name on it - George Williamson (Assam) Ltd, Mahatma Gandhi Road, Guwahati 781001.

I did a search on Bordubi and it brought me to your website. Can you tell me anything about Bordubi - does it still grow tea? Have you been there? What was/is it like?

I'm intrigued. I live in Launceston, Tasmania most of the time and sometimes in London. Or elsewhere. I've never been to India. That is high on my wishlist. In the meantime I have a little touch of India in my living room!

Hope to hear from you soon.

And I did – Shona wrote back immediately:

Hi there Nick,

Yes I am familiar with Bordubi Tea Estate and am friends with the current manager and his wife. Bordubi is located in the Tinsukia district of upper Assam and makes very fine Assam Tea. It is a very beautiful tea estate. Here is a photo of the bungalow:

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/54/39/49/543949309c1f9be062916a5e792a7067.jpg

Let me know how else I can assist you!

Happy New Year!

And from there I was put in touch with Sarita Dasgupta who lived on the Bordubi Estate with her husband Ramanuj, who was the manager there. Sarita told me all about Bordubi, and tea, and sent me photos of the people who probably made the Tea Chest. We weren’t able to discover how the Tea Chest came to Tasmania because the company records of the time were no longer available, but it seems likely that the Tea Chest was sent to England full of Bordubi tea, from where it made its way around the world probably as a packing crate for house removals. There is hand writing on the side saying ‘breakable ornaments.’ 

This is the letting on the sides of the Tea Chest:

Bordubi C06047B George Williamson (Assam) Ltd Mahatma Gandhi Road, Guwahati 781001.

It Pays To Buy Good Tea

Indian Tea 4-1991

Bordubi C06047B (with MM stamped above)

And details of the shipment on the bottom - Gross weight 45.6kg Nett weight 41.0kg

I have kept in touch with both Shona and Sarita and I now consider them friends. Sarita’s husband Ramanuj sent me a bag of Bordubi tea, some of which I put on the bottom of the Tea Chest. It is a Tea Chest once more!  

The opening

Putting Bordubi tea in the tea chest! 

I am delighted to say that I will be meeting both Shona and Sarita this year in person, which I am very excited about. We are all authors and have kept up a regular correspondence since meeting over the internet thanks to the Tea Chest from Bordubi. I have a renewed interest in tea, and hope to visit India one day and have a look at the plantations myself. Perhaps even get to Bordubi, the home of my Tea Chest where fine Assam tea is grown.