Editing Tunbridge ware

{{Short description|Form of decoratively inlaid woodwork}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
[[File:Tunbridge ware banjo 1870 at Two Temple Place, Astor House.jpg|thumb|A Tunbridge ware banjo]]
'''Tunbridge ware''' is a form of decoratively inlaid [[woodworking|woodwork]], typically in the form of boxes, that is characteristic of [[Tonbridge]] and the spa town of [[Royal Tunbridge Wells]] in [[Kent]] in the 18th and 19th centuries. The decoration typically consists of a [[mosaic]] of many very small pieces of different coloured woods that form a pictorial vignette. Shaped rods and slivers of wood were first carefully glued together, then cut into many thin slices of identical pictorial veneer with a fine saw. Elaborately striped and feathered bandings for framing were pre-formed in a similar fashion.

There is a collection of Tunbridge ware in the [[Tunbridge Wells Museum and Art Gallery]] in Tunbridge Wells.<ref name=tunbridgemuseum>[https://web.archive.org/web/20110725095834/http://www.tunbridgewellsmuseum.org/Default.aspx?page=1643 Tunbridge ware] Tunbridge Wells Museum and Art Gallery. Retrieved from archive at [[Wayback Machine]] 2016-12-24.</ref>

==History==
The famous makers of Tunbridge ware were in the Tunbridge Wells area of Kent; their most notable work was from about 1830 to 1900.

Early makers of Tunbridge ware, in Tunbridge Wells in the mid 18th century, were the Burrows family, and Fenner and Co. In the 19th century, around 1830, James Burrows invented a technique of creating mosaics from wooden [[tessera]]e. Henry Hollamby, apprenticed to the Burrows family, set up on his own in 1842 and became an important manufacturer of Tunbridge ware, employing about 40 people.<ref name=collector>{{cite web|url=http://www.antiquecollector.uk.com/articles/tunbridgeware.htm |title=Antique Collector: an Introduction to Tunbridge Ware |accessdate= 2016-12-24}}</ref>
[[File:Home of Nye and Barton, Bishop's Down - geograph.org.uk - 799788.jpg|thumb|"The Chalet": home and workshop of Edmund Nye and Thomas Barton, Tunbridge Wells]]
[[File:Edmund Nye and Thomas Barton Plaques - geograph.org.uk - 1731817.jpg|thumb|The plaque commemorating Edmund Nye and Thomas Barton]]
Edmund Nye (1797–1863) and his father took over the Fenner company when William Fenner retired in 1840, after 30 years in partnership with him. Thomas Barton (1819–1903), previously apprenticed at the Wise factory, joined the Nyes in 1836, and worked as Nye's designer; he took over the business in 1863 and continued there until his death.<ref name=tunbridgemuseum/><ref name=collector/>

In Tonbridge (near to Tunbridge Wells), George Wise (1703–1779) is known to have had a business in 1746. It continued with his son Thomas, and Thomas's nephew George (1779–1869), who took over in 1806. In its early years the company made articles such as workboxes and tea caddies with prints of popular views; later items had pictures created from mosaics. Their workshop in Tonbridge, ''Wise's Tunbridge Ware Manufactory'', was next to the [[Big Bridge over the Medway]]; the building was demolished in 1886 to widen the approach to the bridge.<ref name=tonbridge>{{cite web|url= http://www.tonbridgehistory.org.uk/made-in-tonbridge/tunbridge-ware.htm|title=Tonbridge Historical Society: Tunbridge Ware|accessdate= 2016-12-24}}</ref>

Tunbridge ware became popular with visitors to the [[spa]] town of Tunbridge Wells, who bought them as souvenirs and gifts. Articles included cribbage boards, paperweights, writing slopes, [[snuff (tobacco)|snuff]] boxes and glove boxes.<ref name=collector/>

At the [[Great Exhibition]] of 1851, Tunbridge ware by Edmund Nye, Robert Russell and Henry Hollamby was shown; Edmund Nye received a commendation from the judges for his work. He exhibited a table depicting a mosaic of a ship at sea; 110,800 tesserae were used in making the picture. <ref name=tunbridgemuseum/><ref name=favourite>{{cite web|url=  http://www.favouritecollectables.com/tunbridge-ware/|title=Favourite Collectables: an Introduction to Tunbridge Ware|accessdate= 2016-12-24}}</ref>

The manufacturers of Tunbridge ware were cottage industries, and they were no more than nine in Tunbridge Wells and one in Tonbridge. The number declined in the 1880s; competent craftsmen were hard to find, and public tastes changed. After the death of Thomas Barton in 1903 the only surviving firm was [[Boyce, Brown and Kemp]], which closed in 1927.<ref name=tunbridgemuseum/><ref name=collector/><ref name=favourite/>

==Techniques==
''[[Marquetry]]'' was an old technique which was continued by Nye and Barton to create images such as birds or butterflies.<ref name=tunbridgemuseum/>
[[File:Chlorociboria aeruginascens or Green Elfcup and fruiting bodies.JPG|thumb|x180px|'Green Oak' as caused by the fungus [[Chlorociboria aeruginascens]].]]
''Stickware'' and ''half-square mosaic'' was invented by James Burrows in about 1830: a bunch of wooden sticks of different colours, each having triangular or diamond-shaped cross section, were tightly glued together; in the case of stickware, the resulting block was dried, then turned to form an article such as the base of a pincushion. For half-square mosaic, thin slices were taken from the composite block, and applied to a surface.<ref name=tunbridgemuseum/><ref name=collector/><ref name=favourite/>

''[[Tesselate]]d mosaic'', was a development by James Burrows of half-square mosaic; it was adopted by George Wise and Edmund Nye. Minute tesserae were used to form a wide variety of geometric and pictorial designs.<ref name=tunbridgemuseum/><ref name=collector/>

Many sorts of wood were used for the various colours; about 40 were in regular use. Only natural colours were used; green was provided by "green oak", produced by the action of fungus on fallen [[oak]]. Designs for articles were often taken from designs of [[Berlin wool work]]. <ref name=tunbridgemuseum/><ref name=collector/>

== See also ==
* [[Intarsia]]
* [[Lath art]]
* [[Marquetry]]
* ''[[Opus sectile]]''
* [[Parquetry]]
* [[Pietre dure]]
* [[Yosegi]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110725095834/http://www.tunbridgewellsmuseum.org/Default.aspx?page=1643 Tunbridge ware] Tunbridge Wells Museum and Art Gallery
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100914000345/http://www.teamuseum.org/tunbridgeware.php Tunbridge ware]
* [https://stuartking.co.uk/tunbridge-ware/ Article about Tunbridge ware]
* [http://www.marquetrysociety.ca/Techniques.html Techniques of making Tunbridge ware]
* [http://www.ryemuseum.co.uk/tunbridgeware/  Rye Castle Museum] Tunbridgeware; museum includes a genuine preserved Tunbridgeware workshop

{{Royal Tunbridge Wells}}
{{Tonbridge}}

[[Category:Decorative arts]]
[[Category:Surface decorative techniques in woodworking]]
[[Category:Royal Tunbridge Wells]]
[[Category:Tonbridge]]