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Box of artist's watercolours made by Reeves & Co., given as a school prize.

Paintbox
1879 (Made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Polished wooden box containing solid cakes of watercolour pigment, paint brushes, and a colour tray, with a school prize certificate pasted in the lid.


Object details

Category
Object type
TitleBox of artist's watercolours made by Reeves & Co., given as a school prize. (popular title)
Materials and techniques
Wood and solid cakes of watercolour pigment.
Brief description
Box of artist's watercolours made by Reeves & Co., given as a school prize.
Physical description
Polished wooden box containing solid cakes of watercolour pigment, paint brushes, and a colour tray, with a school prize certificate pasted in the lid.
Dimensions
  • Width: 18.7cm
  • Length: 14.6cm
  • Depth: 5.3cm
Style
Marks and inscriptions
  • St John the Divine Middle Class Boys School Presented to Ernest Cullum Class I Prize for Drawing John Athawes, M.A. Head Master. July 31st 1879. (Printed in blue ink with name of prize winner and his subject written in ink; On label pasted on inner side of the lid; 1879)
  • Reeves & Sons 113. Cheapside. London E.C. (Trade mark; Letterpress; Printed on paper insert inside the box pasted in the brush tray; Letterpress Printing; Gold metallic pigment and blue ink)
Credit line
Given by Imogen Stewart
Object history
Ernest Cullum was the grandfather of the donor, and he was born on June 27th 1864, making him 15 when he won the paintbox as a school prize.
Historical context
Thomas and William Reeves had introduced a new kind of watercolour pigment in the form of hard and dry compressed moulded cakes in the 1780s. Other manufacturers started producing them and they remained popular with certain artists until the late19th century. A disadvantage was that (like Chinese ink blocks used for calligraphy) the cakes or blocks needed rubbing down with water to form a suspension of watercolour before they could be used. The blocks are finely detailed and the moulds used to form them must have been made by experienced modellers. (Some Chinese ink blocks have high quality modelling as well and may well have been the prototype for Reeves's invention.) One side of the British-made blocks of colour usually had an appropriate emblematic figure or device, while the back had the name of the manufacturer; sometimes the name of the colour was moulded in as well. They are reminiscent in their detail of the Tassie casts of gems, which were perfected about 1766, although made by a completely different process. However, the first stage of the mould making process, carving a wax original, might have been the same.
Collection
Accession number
E.1351-2001

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Record createdAugust 30, 2001
Record URL
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