Marquetry jewelry box, the beginning
A few years ago while on vacation in England I bought 5 original marquetry drawings at an auction, they had come from the Gillows furniture company dated from 1910 to 1926.
All of the drawing are of classical design but one in particular caught my eye, and I knew that this would make a great box lid. As the original drawing was about 9"x12" that determined the size of the jewelry box.
Here a pic of one of the marquetry panels ready to be glued down
I used the classic method of cutting , finishing with three panels.
The original drawing for this panel is dated Jan 1924 with the words WTG Liverpool No 2 car, the reference to a No2 car had me wondering if it was made for a railway car, I did lots of searching on the net to no avail.
Last year while back in England we went to one of the many wonderful preserved steam railway lines, while looking around the book store found a book on Pullman carriages written by Antony M Ford, Although I could not find any reference to my drawing in the book ,quite a few marquetry panels in the carriages looked similar.
After returning to Canada I got in contact with the writer of the books Antony M Ford and sent him a copy of my drawing, He confirmed that is was from the Pullman Carriage, "Marjorie" that was built in 1924. He also sent me a copy of his new book that actually included an interior picture of the carriage, on the wall is the"Gillows" marquetry panel made from my drawing, it is located at the side of the door and on the other side is a panel that is very similar but different, so if anyone has a copy of this one I would be most interested.
The book also notes that the carriage was scrapped in 1964 and the marquetry panels were for sale from 10 shilling .
Back to the box,
Now the dimensions were set I proceeded to build the boxes, all the corners have secret mitre joints and you will also notice the spring that will push out the secret drawer.
Here is a pic of the box put together but not glued up yet.
I have been working on these boxes for over a year now on and off, I will post some pics of the front/back and side marquetry panels in the next posting.
All the best
Keith
A few years ago while on vacation in England I bought 5 original marquetry drawings at an auction, they had come from the Gillows furniture company dated from 1910 to 1926.
All of the drawing are of classical design but one in particular caught my eye, and I knew that this would make a great box lid. As the original drawing was about 9"x12" that determined the size of the jewelry box.
Here a pic of one of the marquetry panels ready to be glued down
I used the classic method of cutting , finishing with three panels.
The original drawing for this panel is dated Jan 1924 with the words WTG Liverpool No 2 car, the reference to a No2 car had me wondering if it was made for a railway car, I did lots of searching on the net to no avail.
Last year while back in England we went to one of the many wonderful preserved steam railway lines, while looking around the book store found a book on Pullman carriages written by Antony M Ford, Although I could not find any reference to my drawing in the book ,quite a few marquetry panels in the carriages looked similar.
After returning to Canada I got in contact with the writer of the books Antony M Ford and sent him a copy of my drawing, He confirmed that is was from the Pullman Carriage, "Marjorie" that was built in 1924. He also sent me a copy of his new book that actually included an interior picture of the carriage, on the wall is the"Gillows" marquetry panel made from my drawing, it is located at the side of the door and on the other side is a panel that is very similar but different, so if anyone has a copy of this one I would be most interested.
The book also notes that the carriage was scrapped in 1964 and the marquetry panels were for sale from 10 shilling .
Back to the box,
Now the dimensions were set I proceeded to build the boxes, all the corners have secret mitre joints and you will also notice the spring that will push out the secret drawer.
Here is a pic of the box put together but not glued up yet.
I have been working on these boxes for over a year now on and off, I will post some pics of the front/back and side marquetry panels in the next posting.
All the best
Keith