Description:
A very fine coromandel sewing box inlaid with mother of pearl and abalone depicting stylized foliage and having a liftout tray and document wallet retaining the original gold embossed silk in particularly fresh condition.  

Origin: United Kingdom

Circa: 1850.

Materials: coromandel, mother of pearl abalone and silk.

Size: 30.5cm wide by 22.5cm by 12.3cm:   12 inches wide by   8.9 inches by  4.8  inches.

Condition: Very good original condition with working lock and key.

Inside the box has a liftout tray lined in the original silvered paper and red silk. Two of the supplementary lids have carved mother of pearl pulls. In the lid there is a document wallet release by a carved and turned mother of pearl catch. The front of the document walled is covered by a panel of ruched silk framed by silk decorated with gilded embossing.

The front of the document walled is covered by a panel of ruched silk framed by silk decorated with gilded embossing. The silk is in remarkably good fresh condition indicating that the box has had little use.

The front of the box is inlaid with mother of pearl and abalone depicting stylized foliage.

The detailing is impeccable. The  coromandel ebony is inlaid with  and mother of pearl depicting natural flower forms. The whole box is edged with a solid  rounded ebony filet.  

The ebony veneers are saw-cut. Ebony is a hard but brittle wood and has never responded well to the production of knife-cut veneer. 

A slice would be cut as thinly as possible, about 1.5 mm and then it would be finished to about 1mm. 

Finishing would involve a methodical process of plaining, scraping, abrading, and finally polishing. 

The undefined grain of ebony often makes plaining all but impossible necessitating  scraping which takes much longer. 

The fine  tendril leafing  is very unusual.

A box like this represents many hours of high skilled work. 

 Side view: the figure of the coromandel is dramatic. 

 The box has its original stop hinges.

 The top has a central motif of depicting ferns and flowers in a vase.

Detail of the central motif inlaid in the top.
The fineness of the inlay in three colors of shell is extraordinary. Further definition of the subject is achieved by the fine piercing.

 Corner detail.

Two of the supplementary lids have carved mother of pearl pulls. 

In the lid there is a document wallet release by a carved and turned mother of pearl catch. 

 Corner detail:  The whole box is edged with a solid  rounded  coromandel ebony filet.  

Detail of the escutcheon. The box has a working lock and key.