Description

Exquisite Red Japanned Penwork Sewing Cabinet.

This wonderful little sewing cabinet with red ground penwork decoration has a a pair of greek pegasus horses pulling a chariot manned by Zeus the sky of gods, surrounded by symmetrical pattern of leaves.The rest of the cabinet is decorated with flowers, leaves and butterflies.

On lifting the lid the interior shows blue paper and lots of sections for sewing tools and reels, when the doors are opened it has two drawers with turned bone handles and shows more butterflies and a bird on each door.

As the sky god Zeus had easy access to the women of the world and took full advantage of it. Also, his power as a supreme god made him difficult to resist. Prior to his marriage to Hera he was married first to Metis, then Themis . He was interested in Demeter but she resisted him. His third wife was Mnemosyne. He was involved with Leto shortly before his marriage to Hera. The list of lovers after his final marriage, to Hera, is considerable:

Penwork, or Pen and Ink, was used on boxes to illustrate beautiful scenes and sometimes to record a visit 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.

More information on Sewing Boxes can be found on our historypage.

Additional information