Tunbridge Ware Cotton Reel Box with Geometric Marquetry and Isometric Cube Pattern c1850

Description

Heading : Tunbridge Ware – Cotton Reel Box with Geometric Marquetry and Isometric Cube Pattern
Date : c1850
Period : Victorian
Origin : Tunbridge Wells
Decoration : An angular coffin-shaped box; isometric cube pattern to the top lid. surrounded by a five-square geometric pattern band within pairs of continuous keyline stringing; around all four faces of the body – a narrow oak leaf and acorn pattern band within pairs of continuous and banded keyline stringing; all set within golden satinwood; internally. the lift out reel-rack with metal bars is missing. replaced with a simple cardboard box of reels
Size : 16.3 x 6.6 x 5.3 cm
Condition : Excellent; a couple of missing tesserae and a nick out of the edge veneer on one corner. and the lacquer is a little blotchy in places
Restoration : None
Weight : 147 grams

Notes : Boxes of this style were made by Edmund Nye. and this also shares the same base lining paper which appears on several pieces by his prodige Thomas Barton; it seems entirely reasonable to say that it dates from the period when the two were working together in the early 1850’s (the Pintos date an identical piece to around that same time. too. in their Tunbridge & Scottish Souvenir Woodware book).