Victorian Tunbridge Ware lady's keepsake box with silk lining and geometric marquetry bands
Beautiful Victorian Tunbridge Ware keepsake / lady's workbox inlaid with intricate vertical geometric bands. The body of the box is veneered with walnut and the marquetry is done with various fine woods among others. The hinged domed lid has a vacant rhombus cartouche that is edged with cross-banded fruitwood and ebony; the same design is repeated around the key escutcheon.
The interior of the lid is lined with ruched royal blue silk; this ruched panel is softly padded and can be used to hold decorative pins and brooches.
Royal Tunbridge Wells, England, c. 1870's
660 g
10 cm tall
24.5 cm wide
17 cm deep
Good antique condition. Some nicks and small chips to veneer appropriate to age and use; the brass lock insert is partially protruding on the interior side; crack to the front right corner of the lid and along the left side of the lid.
Beautiful Victorian Tunbridge Ware keepsake / lady's workbox inlaid with intricate vertical geometric bands. The body of the box is veneered with walnut and the marquetry is done with various fine woods among others. The hinged domed lid has a vacant rhombus cartouche that is edged with cross-banded fruitwood and ebony; the same design is repeated around the key escutcheon.
The interior of the lid is lined with ruched royal blue silk; this ruched panel is softly padded and can be used to hold decorative pins and brooches.
Royal Tunbridge Wells, England, c. 1870's
660 g
10 cm tall
24.5 cm wide
17 cm deep
Good antique condition. Some nicks and small chips to veneer appropriate to age and use; the brass lock insert is partially protruding on the interior side; crack to the front right corner of the lid and along the left side of the lid.
Beautiful Victorian Tunbridge Ware keepsake / lady's workbox inlaid with intricate vertical geometric bands. The body of the box is veneered with walnut and the marquetry is done with various fine woods among others. The hinged domed lid has a vacant rhombus cartouche that is edged with cross-banded fruitwood and ebony; the same design is repeated around the key escutcheon.
The interior of the lid is lined with ruched royal blue silk; this ruched panel is softly padded and can be used to hold decorative pins and brooches.
Royal Tunbridge Wells, England, c. 1870's
660 g
10 cm tall
24.5 cm wide
17 cm deep
Good antique condition. Some nicks and small chips to veneer appropriate to age and use; the brass lock insert is partially protruding on the interior side; crack to the front right corner of the lid and along the left side of the lid.
Tunbridge ware is a form of decoratively inlaid woodwork, that is characteristic of Tonbridge and the spa town of Royal Tunbridge Wells in Kent in the 18th and 19th centuries. The decoration typically consists of a mosaic of many very small pieces of different coloured woods that form a pictorial vignette. Shaped rods and slivers of wood were first carefully glued together, then cut into many thin slices of identical pictorial veneer with a fine saw. Elaborately striped and feathered bandings for framing were pre-formed in a similar fashion. Many sorts of wood were employed for the various colours; about 40 were in regular use and only natural colours were used.
In the nineteenth century, Tunbridge ware was highly esteemed nationally as well as locally. The young Princess Victoria, a frequent visitor to the town with her mother the Duchess of Kent, used to buy articles of Tunbridge ware as gifts for her family. Today, these beautiful pieces can only be purchased in antique shops, as none have been made on a commercial basis since 1939.
