Tunbridge Ware Pin-Cushion With Sliding Lid c1870

Description

Heading : Tunbridge Ware – A Small Box with Sliding Pin-Cushion Lid
Date : c1870
Period : Victorian
Origin : Tunbridge Wells. Kent
Decoration : Pin-cushion with dark violet velvet covering; four top edges of the box with banded key-line stringing; a pair of identical five-square geometric bands run around all four sides of the box body. including the fitted ‘cover’ of the sliding lid
Size :  3.0 x 7.0 x 4.5 cm
Condition : Excellent; the velvet is not particularly plush – rather worn. to be fair – but all the tesserae are intact and the lid fits snuggly when pushed in to place
Restoration : none
Weight :  28 grams

Notes : The ubiquitous pin-cushion is a very common element of any notional Tunbridge Ware collection. indicative of the popularity of needlework amongst the demographic of its perceived customer base (gentlefolk who had sufficient spare time to indulge in ‘pass times’ rather than having to graft continually in order to merely subsist); and don’t forget that it was the late Regency love of tapestry that prompted the whole Berlin Wool-work style of mosaic imagery – 19th century England would have been cast in to the deepest and most desolate of funks were it not for a ready supply of pin-cushions !

Consequently. Tunbridge Ware manufacturers turned the things out in huge numbers. with everyone from the Wise family – whilst George III was on the throne – to the Tunbridge Wells Manufacturing Co. Ltd a full 100 years later getting in on the act; this example is perhaps one of the fourth most ‘evolved’ versions. after simple. solid boxes used as inserts in sewing or work boxes. similar fixed examples as stand-alone pieces and then those with lift-off lids. The sheer volume of examples makes identification and dating almost impossible – we can only hazard that the way in which the lacquer has worn. giving the surface a slight texture rather than being completely smooth – suggests a late mid-century provenance – hence our date as given above