Tunbridge ware

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.

In the 19th century, around 1830, James Burrows invented a technique of creating mosaics from wooden tesserae.

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.

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.

[1] 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.