Description:
Oval, silver patch box (unmarked) that descended in the Eastman family of Amherst, Massachusetts, which has the initials "NH" and "NC" engraved on underside of base. The oval flat, friction-fit lid is engraved with a central rosette design and the numbers "1 7 3 8" in the four corners; parallel lines are interspersed with a partial lozenge (could be a star?) on the outer lid edge. "RA15" is written on white tape on bottom; and a paper enclosed in box reads: "For very similar by Ed. Winslow / See ad of Gebelein Ant. Mag / Oct 75 p. 594 but ?/ smaller. H 40." This patch box is similar to a patch box advertised by the Boston store Gebelein in "The Magazine "Antiques" (Vol. 108, October 1975), p. 594. However, this box and its decoration may have been very common since the Yale University Art Gallery also has a similar box made by John Dixwell (1680-1725) of Boston. Few English boxes were hallmarked; completely unmarked boxes as well as ones just bearing makers' marks were produced both in England and America. Although many American craftsmen manufactured boxes, they also imported these ready-made boxes from England, to which they could decorate and apply their own marks to the specification of their local customers, making it difficult to judge the origins of a given piece. Both men and women applied small, decorative patches to their faces to conceal blemishes and decorate the face and bosom in genteel society.
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+96.058.1 |
