Heading : Large Tunbridge Ware Tea Pot Stand with Mosaic featuring Climbing Roses
Date : 1848/49
Period : Victorian
Origin : Tunbridge Wells; labelled for Edmund Nye with a handwritten notation inside stating '10th January 1849'
Decoration : The Rosewood Frame has four chamfered edges each with a Berlin wool-work style climbing rose inside two pairs of banded keylines. The frame is filled with a 'petit point' needlework pad of stylised geometric pattern; the whole sits on four large bun feet
Condition : Good with regard to tile completeness - one patch of four contiguous missing tesserae and some singles lost; one of the corners has lost 8-10 pieces; one corner of the pad is a little threadbare and there's another square of four missing stitches; the base still has it's original lining paper affixed, but has a split across its entire width; this does not affect the stability of the piece and is, obviously, underneath so only becomes apparent should you turn the thing over,
Restoration : None
Weight : 1365 g

Note : This piece is something of a revelation, as the pad with its 'petit point' embroidery on penelope or needlepoint canvas is very much representative of the process by which the original Berlin Wool-work patterns were produced and these - of course - inspired the whole use of micro-mosaics on Tunbridge Ware in the first instance; it's fantastic to see both art-forms in such harmonious proximity. We are aware of just two other example of anything similar - a square (rather than diagonal) sided version, also attributed to Edmund Nye, in the Bracketts 16.05.1997 Sale Catalogue and a diagonal sided version with an inset velvet cushion which is labelled for Thomas Barton in his role as the continuee of Nye's manufactory, following the demise of the latter.