Letter box of leather, with polychrome decoration in Islamic style, made by Alex Berens and painted by Louis Churchill at Studland Art Industries, Swanage, 1920-30

Rectangular wooden box, with a hinged lid, of wood covered in leather embossed and painted with motifs derived from Persian and Islamic art, the edges of the top and bottom of the lid set with brass nails. The lid is cut with a single slot in the centre, edged with a repoussé brass plate worked with flying swans. The box is fitted with a double-bolted lock, the lock plate on the front of the body in repoussé brass worked with tulips. The box is lined with green suede, edged with strips of scarlet leather with gold tooling. The underside of the box is covered with brown leather, with an incised line along each edge, the centre struck with the mark of Studland Art Industries

The box came to the Museum from the son and daughter of the maker.

Said to have been made by Alexander Berens while working for Studland Art Industries

This box, decorated with embossed and painted leathers, was made in the workshops of the Studland Art Industries, Dorset. Many small workshops were founded in the early twentieth-century by idealistic followers of the Arts and Crafts tradition of the late nineteenth century. At present we know almost nothing about Studland Art Industries but we know from the children of the maker that he travelled widely in North Africa as a young man and there acquired an interest in the Islamic motifs that decorate this box.

W.25-1977