Heading : Tunbridge Ware - A Jewellery or Trinket Box - Mosaic Image of Battle Abbey Cloisters
Date : c1870
Period : Victorian
Origin : Tunbridge Wells; England
Decoration : Has a low pillow-top lid with a mosaic image of Battle Abbey Cloisters showing the building after its renovations in the 1850's. This is one of two views of the building used by Henry Hollamby - the other more common version shows the gatehouse. This is placed in a golden satinwood reserve and bounded by continuous and banded keyline stringing and a geometric frieze showing a swag-like pattern; the sides of the body are slightly concave, and all four feature a floral Berlin wool-work frieze, again with continuous and banded keyline stringing; the escutcheon has flush-finished stickwork detail; internally divided in to five compartments; two of which share a lift-off lid with a small turned handle.
Size : 24.5 x 18.0 x 8.2 cm
Condition : Very good; there is a degree of deformation to the front edge of the lid where the base-wood appears to have swollen and affected the applied veneers; the area has been stablised and has small areas of resin fill, but this does not detract from the overall look and feel of the box; there is a tiny area to the mosaic where it looks as if half a dozen or so contiguous, long tesserae have been damaged with very minor losses to one end - again, this is entirely stable; elsewhere there are a very few losses to the frieze around the sides; the inside is immaculate and the box has a key and working lock; probably original lining paper to the base, with some staining and residue where labels (now lost) have been applied.
Restoration : as detailed above
Weight :  743 grams

Notes : Although this piece is unlabelled, the topographic mosaic is one which is entirely typical of Henry Hollamby. The swagged geometric frieze is equally typical of the workshop of (initially) Edmund Nye, which - on Nye's demise - would have passed in to the hands of Thomas Barton who often utilised Hollamby's images on his work.