A REGENCY YEW-WOOD AND SPECIMEN-WOOD PARQUETRY SEWING AND WORK-CABINET

BY JAMES FRIEND, TUNBRIDGE WELLS, EARLY 19TH CENTURY

Details

A REGENCY YEW-WOOD AND SPECIMEN-WOOD PARQUETRY SEWING AND WORK-CABINET
BY JAMES FRIEND, TUNBRIDGE WELLS, EARLY 19TH CENTURY
Of rectangular form with a hinged lid openning to reveal a fitted interior including a pin cushion, above a pair of cabinet doors enclosing two short drawers above two long drawers, on bracket feet, with brass handles to each side, bearing the maker's printed paper label 'Friend, Tunbridge Wells'
11 in. (28 cm.) high, 10 in. (25.5 cm.) wide, 6½ in. (16.5 cm.) deep

Provenance

A Private Collector; Sotheby's, New York, 16 October 1993, lot 265.

Lot Essay

This handsome sewing-cabinet with drawers with its partly-coloured mosaic of trompe l'oeil cubes, is parquetried in woods from every part of the globe in the fashion for which Tunbridge became famous. It bears the label of James Friend (d.1878), who was established in the town around 1810 and executed a work-table in 1826 for Princess Victoria, which enabled him to advertise as Tunbridge Ware Manufacturer to their Royal Highnesses the Duchess of Kent and the Princess Victoria. In the 1830s he was also retailing a range of needlework, and by 1850 was advertising his business as a Tunbridge Ware Manufactory and Berlin Wool Repository (see B. Austen, Tunbridge Ware and Related European Decorative Woodwares, 1996, p.146).

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