Tea chest
Category
Objets de vertu
Date
1810
Materials
Ebony, Glass, Sycamore, Watercolour paint, Wool
Measurements
156 mm (H)310 mm (Length)150 mm (W)
Order this imageCollection
Greenway, Devon
NT 120747.1
Summary
Sycamore tea chest of rectangular form, with canted corners, painted on the lid and sides with naturalistic flowers in polychrome watercolour (varnished). The flowers include roses, aurculas, polyanthus and pansies (on the lid) and poppies, convolvulus, lily of the valley and violets on the sides. The sides of the lid are decorated with a continuous band of bell-flowers. The upper edges of the lid and the edges of the base are ebony-strung. There is as central keyhole and escutcheon; the recessed base is covered in green woollen cloth and there are no feet. Inside, the chest is fitted with a frosted glass sugar bowl with a painted floral upper border, flanked by two rectangular tea caddies with canted corners and ebony strung edges; the top of one is painted with a sprig of heartsease and the other with a sprig of wallflower. Both contain vestiges of foil linings. This is almost certainly an example of amateur painting on a scyamore 'blank' prepared by the Tunbridge ware producers and sold at artists' shops or 'fancy warehouses' such as Ackermann's Repository on the Strand, or the Temple of Fancy in Rathbone Place (and others in provincial towns and cities). The painted flowers suggest an accomplished lady amateur circa 1810.