Tunbridge Ware Glove Box by Edmund Nye c1850

Description

Heading : Tunbridge ware glove box by Edmund Nye c1870

Date : c1850

Period : Victoria

Origin :  Tunbridge Wells, Kent

Decoration : Central foliate woolwork mosaic and foliate banding to border. Side paels with woolwork bnading. Interior with cream silk lining. Dedication to base, see below. Edmund Nye label on the base as shown

Size : 

Condition : Excellent, minimal wear

Restoration : None

Weight : 367 grams

The dedication reads “From the Dowager Countess of Stradbrook to Louisa Wood Frostenden.”

The Dowager Countess in question was Charlotte Maria Rous, Countess of Stradbrooke. She was born Augusta Whittaker and married John Rous, 1st Earl of Stradbroke at 11 Manchester Square, London.

The family split their time between Henham Hall (the Suffolk family seat of the Rous family) and London, as was common for the gentry of the time.  Of their children there are two of note: John Rous, 2nd Earl of Stradbroke, who served nobly in the Peninsula wars fighting at Salamanca, Burgos, VIttoria, and San Sebastian. Following Napoleon’s escape from Elba, he was ordered to return to Wellington’s army and serve in the Waterloo Campaign. He was wounded at the battle of Quatre Bras and retired from the army a hero.

Their second son, Henry John Rous, also served in the Napoleonic wars in the Royal Navy. His career was rather extraordinary. Having joined the Navy at just 13 years of age, as was common at the time, he rose to the rank of Admiral and was briefly Fourth Naval Lord. In the swashbuckling days of early 19th century Naval warfare, Henry Rous’s career reads like a prototypical romance novel.

He was involved in the cutting out (boarding an enemy ship in combat) of numerous French vesels in his early days, captured and commanded numeorus ships, commanded a prize vessel which capsised mid ocean. Thankfully for Rous the vessel he had captured was filled with oil keeping it buoyant for long enough for his crew to be rescued by another captured ship. He also spent time in Australia and it is after him that Stradbroke Island, the Rous Channel, and Dunwich are named.

In short, the Dowager Countess was the mother of the type of men that made Britain the envy of the world; dynamic, brave, and resourceful. It is stories like these that bring antiques to life. This box, a Tunbridge ware glove box like many others, holds the social history of a nation in its tesselated magnifiance. How many of our various antiques have passed through the hands of such men that forged this country?

This Tunbridge ware glove box was designed by Thomas Barton for Edmund Nye and is an exceptional example.