Description:
A rosewood veneered box, inlaid with mother of pearl in a stylized pattern, which forms a fine foliated design in reverse having a lift out tray, still covered with its original Tyrian purple silk  with divisions  for sewing. 

The workmanship is of high standard; for example, the box is edged with a rounded piece of wood which finishes it elegantly and also protects it. 

Origin: United Kingdom

Circa:  1840

Materials: Rosewood, mother of pearl.

Size: 30.5 cm wide by 22.6 cm by 12.7 cm:   12 inches wide by   9 inches by   5 inches.

Condition: good overall, working lock and key.

There is a document wallet in the lid.

Inside there is a liftout tray fitted for sewing with supplementary lids covered with Tyrian purple silk.

The fast, non-fading purple dye was an item of luxury trade, prized by Romans, who used it to colour ceremonial robes. Pliny the Elder described the dyeing process of two purples in his Natural History^[2]:

"'... the Tyrian hue ... is considered of the best quality when it has exactly the colour of clotted blood, and is of a blackish hue to the sight, but of a shining appearance when held up to the light; hence it is that we find Homer speaking of "purple blood'."

From Wikipedia we learn:

"Tyrian purple (Greek: πορφύρα, porphura), also known as royal purple or imperial purple, is a purple-red dye made by the ancient Canaanites/Phoenicians in the city of Tyre, from a mucus-secretion of the hypobranchial gland of a marine snail known as Murex brandaris or the Spiny dye-murex.  

A synthetic purple was not developed untill the early 20th C.

 

The workmanship is of high standard; for example, the box is edged with a rounded piece of wood which finishes it elegantly and also protects it.

Detail of the mother of pearl inlay. Under magnification it is possible to see small marks indicating that the mother of pearl inlay has been cut with a fine piercing saw. This type of inlay is time consuming work.  An interesting and unusual feature of the inlay of this box is that the rosewood has been engraved with fine lines depicting the veins of the leaves.

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 The inside of the box is lined with light blue paper.