Dick Frizzell has teamed up with Bell Tea to create a custom-made collectable caddy.

It is emblazoned with hand-painted true-blue Kiwi expressions that capture Bell’s 100-year history as one of the country’s few locally blended and packed teas.

Frizzell’s distinguishable Kiwiana style brings colloquialisms such as “That feel alive flavour,” “Storm in a tea cup” and “I could murder a cuppa” to life in a bold and playful way.

Inspiration for the design came to Frizzell after chatting with friends and family over a cuppa.

“When I embark on a project like this I never really know how it is going to turn out,” he says. “I almost have to step out of myself and think how would Dick Frizzell do this? The typically Kiwi phrases associated with a cup of tea were my inspiration and I’m so pleased it all came together so well.”

Bell Tea marketing manager Jessica Ambler says the caddy is the perfect coming together of Frizzell’s distinctive style and Bell’s history and heritage.

“Tea caddies are highly collectable and practical items that not only keep tea fresh but make a stylish addition to the kitchen,” she says.

“Having one designed by such a celebrated Kiwi artist captures the distinctly New Zealand flavour that is Bell and Dick Frizzell.”

"Dick Frizzell’s work has always been characterised by a highly skilled handling of paint and an endlessly inventive range of subject matter and styles: faux-naive New Zealand landscapes, figurative still-life, comic book characters and witty parodies of modernist abstraction. His taste is conveniently broad and he has a penchant for fondly remembered and well-worn clichés. His work also portrays a sense of exuberance, ironic humour and baby-boomer nostalgia. An anti-traditionalist, Frizzell often makes a deliberate effort to mix up the categories of high and low art".

Please consider postage carefully as there is a dent risk if not boxed.