Some Georgian trifles from Bury St Edmunds
Our 7th December Fine Art & Antiques auction includes a large single-owner collection of 18th century South Staffordshire enamel decorative boxes and other ‘toys’. Comprising over 100 individual pieces to include nutmeg graters, bodkin cases, etui and bonbonnieres, but the majority being patch boxes, often decorated with pastoral scenes, affectionate mottoes and landmarks – possibly a more refined souvenir than a fridge magnet.
These small, well-crafted and beautifully ornamented trinkets were highly fashionable in the 18th century and have become a rich field for collectors today. Wonderful examples of workshop industry before industrialisation fully took hold, each box involved many specialised workers, often whole families, with each producing different components from the copper sheets, to the hinges, applying the enamel, then painting the decoration. This was also an area in which women played an intrinsic role – both as producers and consumers.
It was a short-lived industry which flourished mainly from the 1750s to the end of the century. French Huguenots fleeing religious persecution brought their glass and enamelling expertise, which combined with the burgeoning Midlands metal industries, met the perfect moment when the rising middle classes had money to spend and an eye for amusing trifles.
The Romantic Georgians, full of sensibilities and etiquette, wanted their practical accoutrements to also be charming while taking the air (and balls) in spa towns such as Bath and Margate. Bird-shaped bonbonnieres, egg-shaped nutmeg graters decorated with flowers, gilt-mounted etui adorned with classical ruins, and delicate patch boxes with pretty sentimental declarations of affection (so that an absent lover will be remembered while covering up those smallpox scars), all offer a fascinating insight into the Georgian mindset.
However, my personal favourites are when reality and the historical context creeps in, such as this example depicting Lady Justice and an American Indian flanking a ship beneath a handshake and above the motto ‘Peace Reigns Here’; possibly a reference to the end of the Seven Years War and transfer of American French territories to the English in 1763, which resulted in the (temporarily at least) curtailment of westward expansion and the establishment of Indian reserves.
An unintentional reminder that it wasn’t all peace and prosperity and that many of the working class Georgians making these trinkets would be living in poor conditions, on the breadline, and maybe have male family members press-ganged into fighting one of the many wars of the period.
Alas, fashions change, economies fluctuate and production methods modernise, and this once thriving industry fell into decline around the turn of the 19th century. Iron, steel and pottery production in large manufactories replaced the small workshops, trinkets became more affordable to the masses (and therefore less desirable), and of course, Edward Jenner performed his first smallpox vaccination in 1796.
You can preview a selection of the enamels on our website, and we will be open for viewing on Thursday 5th, Friday 6th and sale day from 9am.
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