Description:
JB431: A rare and striking box made by a gifted craftsman who had a truly artistic instinct for the materials at his disposal. Patterns are created by different woods, which mutually enhance and compliment the varied qualities of the timbers, resulting in an object the beauty of which is wholly created by projecting organic natural growth. The faint straight grain of the background veneer is an unobtrusive background which allows the dramatic centre to make a bold and striking statement: the force and beauty of a living plant. The box has a replacement tray with supplementary lids. Circa 1790.

Origin: UK

Circa: 1790

Size: 31.5 cm wide by 24.5 cm by 14 cm:  12.4 inches wide by  9.7 inches by  5.5 inches.

Condition: Tiny old repair under left quarter inlay. If minutely examined, small scratches and losses. Interior added. Working lock and key.

Although the box is not in the distinctive Tunbridge ware designs of slightly later work, it has many characteristics attributable to pre formulaic Tunbridge ware (use of yew, central growth patterns, ovals, juxtaposed timbers) and it definitely shows an artistic/craft genius at work. Occasionally this exceptional quality is found in tea caddies of the period; boxes are rarer.

Detail: the corners are inlaid with marquetry in triangular segments. This is made of quarter-cut sapwood which shows sharp growth patterns, which are smaller, but complementary to the main central design.

The front and top centres of the box are inlaid with book-matched yew sapwood veneers. These create a bold pattern, the dark middle getting darker before bursting out into the lighter outer wood in lively patters which end in sharply defined jagged lines. The central inlays are set in a frame of harewood edged in fine plain and rope- twist stringing. 

The sides are veneered in maple and edged in the same patterns as the top and front. They are decorated with ovals of burr yew, the knotted figure of which livens up the surface and provides a good background to the original strong drop-down brass handles.

The back is in maple, edged in matching patterns and decorated with two smaller ovals in tulipwood.

The sides are veneered in maple and edged in the same patterns as the top and front. They are decorated with ovals of burr yew, the knotted figure of which livens up the surface and provides a good background to the original strong drop-down brass handles.

The top of the box is veneered in light coloured satinwood and edged in slanted kingwood and herringbone lines. The two edging bands are separated by rope twist lines in ebony and boxwood. The veneers are thick saw-cut veneers and over the last two hundred years they have shrunk and expanded in slightly different ways, resulting in a surface which has the natural beauty of a ‘living’ object.  

The top central inlay is suggestive of a leaf pattern, which reinforces the impression of bursting life and energy implicit in the growing wood. The corners are inlaid with marquetry in triangular segments. This is made of quarter-cut sapwood which shows sharp growth patterns, which are smaller, but complementary to the main central design.

 The front and top centres of the box are inlaid with book-matched yew with light  sapwood and dark heartwood veneers. These create a bold pattern, the dark middle getting darker before bursting out into the lighter outer wood in lively patters which end in sharply defined jagged lines. The central inlays are set in a frame of hare wood edged in fine plain and rope- twist stringing. 

 The central inlays are set in a frame of hare wood edged in fine plain and rope- twist stringing. 

The central pattern:  book-matched yew with light  sapwood and dark heartwood

 

The central inlays are set in a frame of hare wood edged in fine plain and rope- twist stringing. 

The central pattern:  book-matched yew with light  sapwood and dark heartwood.

The box has a replacement tray with supplementary lids.