Featured Tunbridge Ware Box?

Grandad is doing some sorting and came up with this nice box. He is calling it Tunbridge Ware and thinks that because there is a house on it that it is worth some money to fund his trip. Any info would be a great help. Thanks all for your time.

 

Nice tunbridge box and potentially pretty valuable. How about a pic of the whole box from perspective, a better close-up of the inlay, and a pic of the interior? Also, size will help.

 

It looks more like marquetry than Tunbridge ware.

A picturein natural light without the reflection would help. also general and close up pictures as requested.

Select 'Full Image' when posting.

 

No expert on Tunbridge ware but am seeing similar listed as such. What actually constitutes Tunbridge ware?

 

Looks like Tunbridge Ware 'mosaic' effect to me...

~Cheryl

 

Yep. Same here.

 

I must admit that my eyes are down to about 30% efficiency, which is why I am always moaning about people's pictures.

 

My understanding is that Tunbridge ware was made by bundling square sticks of wood of different colors. The colors were arranged to form pictures when viewing the end of the bundle. They could be pretty elaborate and they do have a 'mosaic' appearance. The idea was that you could cut the bundle into thin slices, each showing the same picture.

I think some nice close up details of the house and the oak leaf border would help. (They would also be useful for selling.)

Any losses anywhere? They might show the thickness of the veneer, and that might make a difference.

 

I see oak leaves and acorns on the border and an Elizabethan/Tudor style house in the center. Shakespeare's maybe?

 

an Elizabethan/Tudor style house in the center. Shakespeare's maybe?

Evelyb, that made me think of the ONE time I took a "guided tour" in the UK... DH & I were in Stratford on Avon.

"And this is where Anne Hathaway was born," said the pretty little tour guide, "Or at least we think it is..."

"And this is where William Shakespeare lived," she continued. "Or at least we think it is..."

Faced with what I think was a branch of Madame Tussaud's (complete with an automated Henry VIII in the front window, raising & lowering his crown) - and surrounded by American tourists (most of whom, for whatever reason, were buying "Sherlock Holmes" hats and/or pretty little potted plants that could never be brought back into the states) - DH & I looked at each other and said, "Never again!

That was in 1978, and we haven't taken one of those guided tours again!

 

and we haven't taken one of those guided tours again!

I could give a guided tour here. We could start with the block of flats across the road where someone was murdered in the lift, move past the house next door that was a cannabis farm for a while, and the convenience store across the road that acted as a drug shop as well and still failed, move on to the pub a couble of hundred yards down the road where another chap was murdered (nothing fancy,, it's just brute force round here.)

On the way back I could show you the chimp's house and tell you what they got up to, most of it out in the small front yard because they did not seem comfotable indoors.

Then if it is July you could pick as many strawberries you like from our numerous strawberry beds, to eat them on the reasonably secluded back lawn before finishing off with a visit to what remains of the contents of the shed with a free souvenir each.

Clearly you just don't do the right kind of conducted tour.

 

Aww, AF - you make me want to plan another visit - sooner, rather than later! (I would, however, love to visit that shed!)

Actually, this past summer, the last time I was in London, a friend who lives there pretty much demanded that I pay a visit to his "allotment".

After hiking uphill for what seemed like ages (but was probably only 15 or 20 minutes) we arrived at what turned out to be a teeny, tiny little vegetable garden...

"Oh... so this is IT?" I wondered...

It was about 1/8th the size of the smallest vegetable garden I've ever had, but my friend was just SO proud of it!

"Do you have any idea how long the waiting list is for an allotment here?" he asked.

I got the feeling that the cachet of having an allotment there was worth way more to him than ANY vegetables he might have grown.

 

Thanks! This looks like it could fit that description.

 

Meanwhile, my mom's cousin has about half an acre of flowers, never mind the veggies. That doesn't include the fruit trees. She's over 80. There is a lot more land available in most of the US than there is in London.

 

See, allotments are a wonderful thing. Every council in Britain has to provide them, by law. You rent them for almost no money at all. And in London, at least, they are a wonderful buggers muddle of cultures growing the most astonishing vegetables and such. You're not allowed to grow flowers, they are managed by an officer from the council and some still have competitions.

 

We have some community gardens here too; my aunt has a plot like that. Not huge, but she's 89 and doesn't want a large one. I can imagine the London ones, with veggies from all over the world growing cheek by jowl. I'll bet you get some interesting accidental hybrids!

 

I'm not sure if anyone IDed the house in the pic other than SBSVC tour. Anyways it is of Shakespeare birthplace before it was restored in 1847. The original house did not have gables. Here is another Tunbridge ware of the house.
https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/...0051/lot-fe419398-82a9-4ad8-b56c-a44200b1de12

Here is an engraving of the house in 1847 before it was restored.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Birthplace0001.jpg

--- Susan

 

Certainly would be nice if it could be proven to be by Henry Hollamby! Following is a link to a few Tunbridge ware pieces "attributed to Henry Hollamby." A couple of them seem to have the same beaded? edging as well as the oak leaves border.
http://www.onlinegalleries.com/artists/d/henry-hollamby/11176

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunbridge_ware#History
http://www.antiquecollector.uk.com/articles/tunbridgeware.htm

--- Susan

 

Lots of good information in this thread and the OP is missing in action.

 

Ruth, the lovely thing you get is people trading recipes and food from all continents. The old boys who've had their allotments growing taters and such now grow okra, and figs and heaven knows what. London has a mild micro climate: it's astonishing what thrives.