Antique Figured Coromandel Jewellery Casket by Toulmin & Gale 19th Century

This is a magnificent antique brass bound Victorian Gothic Revival coromandel jewellery casket by the internationally renowned retailer Toulmin & Gale, London, circa 1860 in date.

 

The rectangular box features studded brass bands terminating in decorative fleur de lys appliqués. It opens to reveal a beautiful royal blue velvet and silk lining, has its original working lock and key and bears the gilded makers label of Toulmin & Gale.

 

This is a highly decorative casket which will make a statement once placed on any period desk. 

 

Condition:

 In excellent condition, please see photos for confirmation.

Dimensions in cm:

Height 12 cm x Width 28 cm x Depth 20 cm

Dimensions in inches:

Height 5 inches x Width 11 inches x Depth 8 inches

Toulmin & Gale

were premier Victorian-era London manufacturers of luxury dressing cases, writing desks, and despatch boxes, active from the mid-19th century (with roots to 1735) until their bankruptcy around 1872–1876. Known for high-quality, brass-bound, and often secret-compartment-fitted items in mahogany or coromandel, they operated from Cheapside, Bond Street, and Sise Lane.

They were highly regarded for excellence in material and workmanship, receiving a prize medal at the International Exhibition of 1862.

They produced luxurious, bespoke items, including writing slopes, traveling bags, and game boxes.

Their items were often used by royalty and the aristocracy.

Later History: Despite bankruptcies in the 1870s, the name continued in various forms, with Joseph Toulmin continuing to manufacture for other firms until at least 1884.

Coromandel wood or Calamander wood

is a valuable wood from India, Sri Lanka  and South East Asia. It is of a hazel-brown color, with black stripes (or the other way about), very heavy and hard. It is also known as Macassar Ebony or variegated ebony and is closely related to genuine ebony, but is obtained from different species in the same genus; one of these is Diospyros quaesita Thwaites, from Sri Lanka. The name Calamander comes from the local sinhalese name, 'kalu-medhiriya', which means dark chamber; referring to the characteristic ebony black wood.

Coromandel wood has been logged to extinction over the last 2 to 3 hundred years and is no longer available for new work in any quantity. Furniture in coromandel is so expensive and so well looked after that even recycling it is an unlikely source. A substitute, Macassar Ebony, has similar characteristics and to the untrained eye is nearly the same but it lacks the depth of colour seen in genuine Coromandel.

Our reference: A5113b