Box
Category
Wooden objects
Date
1800 - 1900
Materials
Bone, Metal, Oak, Straw, Sugar paper
Measurements
108 mm (H)289 mm (W)197 mm (D)
Order this imageCollection
Greenway, Devon
NT 118649
Summary
French prisoner of war straw sewing box, small drawers to front, boats and houses design on lid. (Possibly) French POW straw marquetry box, circa 1810 on an oak carcase, with hinged lid (damaged) and two small drawers in the base, below 2 false drawer fronts. There is a bone keyhole escutcheon and metal lock, and the round drawer knobs are also of bone. The lid is decorated with a harbour scene with a warship and other shipping on one side, and harbour buildings and a church on the other; British ensigns (?red) on ships and land. This scene is framed by diagonal straw patterns and scrolled spandrels, with surrounding banded borders. The drawer fronts are decorated with scrolling motifs and banded borders. Inside, the lid has a brightly coloured architectural fantasy scene within an octagonal frame, with fan-shaped spandrels and outer borders of diagnonally laid straws. The body of the box contains six sections - a central square compartment with lift-up lid, flanking rectangular lidded sections and two pincushions flanking a fixed but decorated panel. The lid of the central square is decorated with a circular trophy of arms and flags (and a Union Jack on the shield) and diagonal pink straw sections. The underside of the lid has a (damaged) mirror and, on the floor of the compartment, an arrangement of flags including red and white ensigns, French (?)Spanish, (?)Dutch and Swedish flags. The side compartments have flower sprays on the tops of the lids and diagonal patterns of straw lengths inside; the left-hand compartment has a pin hinge, the right-hand compartment's hinge is missing. The insides of the drawers have a central star motif within a diamond of diagonal straws, and surrounding sections of pink-tinted diagonal straws. The outside of these drawers are covered with pale blue sugar paper.
Provenance
Introduced to the Property by Agatha Christie Mallowan