A tea caddy is a container used to store tea.  Caddies protect a tea’s taste from air, humidity and other smells.  As tea was a luxury commodity, these containers were usually locked. The word “caddy” derives from “catty’ (the word for a Chinese pound) which was the measurement by which tea was sold.  A tea poy is a three-legged table or stand for a tea caddy.  Poy is derived from an Indian word meaning three feet in Hindi. However, these stands used by the British in colonial times were stable and had an additional fourth leg.