Regency Painted Penwork Sewing Box (c. 1820 uk)

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Wonderful example of a Painted Penwork Sewing Box, all applied on white wood sycamore box

Wonderful example of a Painted Penwork Sewing Box, all applied on white wood sycamore box with a quite beautiful complex shape, giving the artist more scope for painting. This is one of the best we have had for a very long time and the quality of the work is very high. Its painted on the top with a mixture of flowers, strawberrys, berrys, foliage and sea shells, with the sides having a very striking elaborate entwined leaf decoration.


This wonderful regency sewing box stands on four brass ball & claw feet with a pair of brass gilded lion mask side handles.


The interior of this penwork sewing box is lined with pink silk, has a removable tray with a good selection of original sewing tools, they comprise of:


Bone tape measure, Ivory sewing clamp with silk pin cushion, Ivory needle case,carved ivory & gold thimble, Ivory sewing winder, Bone crochet needle, wicker basket pin cushion and round wicker pin cushion, and other sewing bits and pieces.


This wonderful painted sewing box comes with a fully working lock and tasselled key.


Penwork, or Pen and Ink, was used on boxes to illustrate beautiful scenes and sometimes to record a vist to a foreign country or vacation. They can feature people, landscapes, birds, insects, plants, flowers, animals and some have prints of greek mythology or of spa towns. These were all drawn very exact and beautifully finished with a shellac varnish. Some penwork would of been commissioned to professional artists, but the majority favoured pass-time of ladies (the ladies were often skilled in the technique as the professionals!) It's because of this that we see many different examples of Penwork.


This penwork sewing box is featured in our current brochure.