Description

Wonderful basket with carrying handle also decorated in Penwork. The penwork garden scene depicts a young man attempting to woo a young lady accompanied by her chaperone. The base is surrounded by Penwork decorated flowers. The Penwork Sewing basket has a bottom drawer with bone handle and the basket’s interior is lined with its original pink paper.

This Antique Sewing basket comes complete with working lock and tasselled key.

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.

Height including handle : 12″

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

Additional information