Antique Child's Mother Of Pearl Palais Royal Sewing Box * French * Circa 1820

Description

Antique Child's MOP Palais Royal Sewing Box
French * Circa 1810-20
This rare little set is a petite example of the mother of pearl sewing sets from the famous Palais Royal in Paris.
The box is lovely. It is made of wood with little pyramid carvings covering the 4 sides and top. These were then covered with red leather and each has been topped with a faceted steel stud. The workmanship is amazing. It has a velvet lined tray fitted for each of the tools. The inner lid has a mirror (original) bordered with silk chenille.
The mother of pearl needlework tools include a bodkin, a stiletto, a needle case, a thimble and a tiny silk winder (7/8" in diameter). It sits in a little mirrored chenille lined recess.
There is a silk tool pad trimmed with silk chenille. This is a little large and may not be original. There is also a pair of steel snips and a cut glass, gilt top perfume bottle.
There is a silk tool pad trimmed with silk chenille. This is a little large and may not be original.
Everything else looks to be original to this box.
The little steel scissors
(3 3/8" long)
are in great condition and still have a lot of the original polished surface. The blades are tight with intact points and they cut beautifully to the tips. The thimble is inlaid with a gold enameled pansy. It is about an American child's size 4-5 (12.9 mm diameter opening). The condition is unusually nice for one of these mop thimbles and it has no cracks or other damage
. The interior sleeve of the needle case has a small chip and there's a natural flaw in the mop on the back, but it closes securely and is in otherwise excellent condition. Like the thimble, it
has an enameled pansy seal on the front.
The other mop tools are perfect with no chips, cracks or other damage. The hand cut crystal perfume bottle is also in great condition with no damage at all and it has the original ground glass stopper under the gilded screw top. The small thimble (and the size of the box) make me think this set was for a child or very young lady.
The box measures 5 1/2" x 3" x 1 3/4" high and is in excellent condition with no chips cracks or loss. It sits on 4 brass feet (original) and the bottom has the original paper. The brass hinge is strong and original. Postage includes Registered shipping for non US addresses and insured UPS shipping within the US.
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