The Hygra Antique Boxes at the Sign of the Hygra
2 Middleton Road, London, E8 4BL, UK.   
PHONE: 00 44 (0)20 7254 7074 
News    Buying   email History of boxes The Schiffer Book |

 

Sewing box 

writing-boxes

jewelry-boxes

tea caddies

Anglo-Indian

Chinese- export

penwork

Tunbridgeware

papier-mâché

Snuff boxes 

terms

Advanced Search

contents


Back to main page
 

| next picture| previous picture   

Click for next image

Inside, written with ink, is a will and testament: "To be given to

Christien Walters  (? ), with my best love kabinka  (?) Cambbell 1905"

Inside, written with ink, is a will and testament: "To be given to

Christien Walters  (? ), with my best love kabinka  (?) Cambbell 1905"

EK has kindly sent me some observations:

"I think it starts "To be given to Christian Walker" (not Walters)
It's very common that the lighter stroke of the round top of a capital R fades so it looks like K. (Very like the K in Walker.)

The name "Christian" was very common for girls at this time in Scotland, and though its "Sunday" pronunciation was Christine, family would often just pronounce it "Kirsten / Kirstchin".

It's hard to make out from the picture whether the bit after Robin is
either: a middle initial O or D (as in Robin O Campbell)
or else:  a small "a" written across the down-and-up flourish of the tail of the Y in the word "my"above it.
My hunch is it's the second - in other words, Robina Campbell.

So the inscription is, I'm 95% sure,
"To be given to Christian Walker, with my best love Robina Campbell 1905"

'"To be given to" rather suggests she may have been anticipating her own demise. '
The last part of the name of the 1905 recipient of the box.
"Christien Walters (?)
"reads, I think, as Christian Walker Russell"

(You can seen that the R in Russell and the R in "kabinka"/Robina have faded at the top of the loop in the same way.)

 

 

All text and images and linked images are © 1999-2006 Antigone Clarke and Joseph O'Kelly. If you require any further information on permitted use, or a licence to republish any material, email us at copyright@hygra.com