Description

Oval patch box with polished steel mirror inside lid. Illustrated with transfer print design, hand coloured. Image after Francis Hayman’s 'A Cricket Match at Mary-le-bone Fields'. Inscribed 'A Present from Sevenoaks' and 'Sevenoaks Vine'. Similar object listed in Wisden Cricket Monthly July 1980

Display caption

This oval patch box with polished steel lid inside is made from enamelled copper and decorated with transfer printed scene after Francis’s Hayman’s painting ‘A Cricket Match at Mary-le-bone Fields’. The curved bats, underarm bowling and umpires holding bats are prominent features of the early game. Transfer printing developed in England in the 1750s and is a mass-production method of applying an image to curved or uneven surface. The design is first engraved on a cooper plate and transferred onto a sheet of tissue paper. This is then placed on the ware in an unglazed state and fired to transfer the image. The ware is then glazed and fired again to make the image permanent. Patch boxes held artificial beauty spots or ‘patches’ which were fashionable cosmetic items around 1700s. This one is inscribed 'A Present from Sevenoaks' and 'Sevenoaks Vine' and is an one of the earliest examples of a commercial cricketing souvenir.