What woods were sewing boxes made from?

Rosewood and walnut lead the archive, with mahogany behind them. Burr walnut and figured walnut account for a good part of the walnut count. Coromandel and satinwood turn up regularly in the upper half of the range, and amboyna, kingwood and burr yew surface too. Teak appears on the colonial side.

Why are so many listed as sewing and jewellery boxes?

Because that is how they were sold. The same fitted box served for needlework, trinkets or writing, and dealers title them by both uses. Jewellery appears in thirty-eight titles and work in another thirty-eight, writing in nineteen. One title covers sewing, writing and jewellery in a single compendium.

How old are most of them?

The dating is mostly given as a period label rather than a year. Nineteenth Century is the commonest tag, then Victorian, Regency and Georgian. Where decades are given they cluster mid-to-late Victorian, with the 1870s, 1860s and 1880s roughly level. The dated field runs from 1750 to 1930, though only ninety-nine of two hundred and ninety-one listings carry a clean year. Eighteenth-century boxes barely register: two samples against sixty-five tagged simply 19th Century.

What is Tunbridge ware on a sewing box?

Mosaic built from tiny strips of coloured wood, usually applied as banding round the lid or as a panel in the centre of it. It runs to twenty-three titles, which makes the Tunbridge Wells tradition the one named decorative style in the category. Boxes carrying it sit in the upper half of the range.

Are these boxes always rectangular?

Rectangular and table-top sized is the norm, but two other silhouettes are named often enough to expect. Sarcophagus form, tapering with a stepped or domed lid, appears in eight titles. The pannier or basket shape appears in another eight. A small number of listings are sewing tables, stands, cantilever cabinets or reel boxes rather than boxes at all.

Which sewing boxes are French or Continental?

A small thread only. Palais Royal necessaires, fitted with mother-of-pearl or gilt tools, are the consistent Continental presence, and they cluster in the upper part of the range. Beyond those, a blue-enamel boulle box, kingwood and apple wood pieces and Napoleon III examples turn up singly. The archive on Sellingantiques is otherwise English.