Tunbridge Ware Sewing Box with Brighton Pavilion Print c1820

Description

Heading : Tunbridge Ware – An Early Sewing Box with Mounted Brighton Pavilion Print
Date : c1820
Period : George IV
Origin : Tonbridge and Brighton; England
Decoration : A lightly-figured amboyna ore perhaps elm-veneered box. rectangular. tapering towards its base; hinged lid with canted edges. decorated with a pen or sponge-work border; to the centre. a coloured etching showing Brighton Pavilion with gilt-decorated border; metal ringed cornucopia handles to both short sided; diamond-shaped inlaid bone or mother of pearl escutcheon; raised on four spherical brass feet. Internally. a large single well. with ledged sides on which sits a deep tray; this is divided in to sixteen sections to include: needle book and reel compartments; a small pin cusion; thimble holders and a rectangular compartment with its own lift-out lid; all lined with the original pink paper.
Size : 13.7 cm high x 23.7 cm wide x 18.5 cm deep 
Condition : Excellent; overall there is some unevenness to the surfaces where the softer parts of the figures wood grain have worn more readily than the harder surrounds; small losses to the veneer borders around the top lid image. all filled with lacquer; the print has a couple of small scores and its original colours are obscured for the most part. as the overlaying lacquer his discoloured over time; internally. there are only remnants of the original silk ‘lifting tapes’ which were affixed to both the tray and the pin cushion. but both elements can still be easily removed; key present and working
Restoration : none. other than re-lacquering of small losses as above
Weight : 1100 grams

Notes : We are indebted to the Brighton Museums Trust who identified the print as being ‘A View of the Pavillion (sic) Brighton’ published by John Izard of 18 St James’s Street. Brighton in around 1820; the print must post-date 1818 as it shows elements of the Pavilion which were not completed until that year. and is alternatively entitled “Pavilion from the Steine Enclosure”. The box is of exactly the same form as one identified as having been made by George Wise (II) of Tonbridge (see Tunbridge Ware And Related European Decorative Woodwares – Brian Austen; 2001 – page 38); Izard rather grandly advertised himself as a ‘Tunbridge Ware Maker’ but we imagine that his role consisted of little more than ‘finishing off’ Wise’s work by producing and affixing the prints and applying the decorative borders…