A SUPERB QUALITY REGENCY BRASS-BOUND MAHOGANY MILITARY STYLE WRITING-BOX By E. Gaimes CIRCA 1806 OWNED BY MR JOHN HENRY LEY of TREHILL DEVON, CLERK TO THE HOUSE OF COMMONS FOR ALMOST HALF A CENTURY UNTIL 1850
Antique military mahogany writing box by Gaimes with brass straps and corner brackets each with steel slot screws for added strength and durability. The top has a brass escutcheon with owners name ‘Mr Ley’ with brass key escutcheon to the front marked ‘Turners Patent’, a lock of quality. Sides of the box have campaign military flush fitting handles, the right hand side has a drawer which can only be accessed once the box is open as a sprung pin locks the drawer in place. Removing the drawer reveals another oval retailers & makers label.
Opening the captains writing box reveals its original velvet writing surface and lifting the lower half reveals ribbon strung back and a storage space which houses a removable reading rail which can be attached to the lid of the military box, which can be lifted at an angle with the use of the hinged brass lectern stands of the open military box. Large rectangular makers label to strung lid with many details of Gaimes addresses and products.
The lockable top half of the writing surface reveals another ribbon strung underside complete with another oval makers & retail label which reads: ‘Gaimes Cutler and Perfumer No54 St Pauls Church Yard and No56 Cornhill ‘
This storage compartment features dividers and by removing this compartment (press side wall of compartment) allows access to a hidden compartment.
The top of the open writing box features a brass travelling inkwell, two glass inkwells, key and a pen tray. Removing the pen tray reveals two brass candle sconces which can be placed in the top edge of the open box.
8¾ in. (22 cm.) high; 21 in. (53 cm.) wide; 11¼ in. (28.5 cm.) deep
One of the oval makers labels has an inked date of 1806 which fits well with the early days of ownership by Mr Ley of Trehill, Devon (the Carte de Visit in the box is a later relative and possible subsequent owner of the box who was an officer in the North Devon Yeomanry):-
John Henry Ley served the Commons – first as clerk assistant and then from October 1820 as clerk – for almost half a century before his death in August 1850. Shortly after Parliament reassembled for the 1851 session, MPs unanimously passed a resolution recording their ‘just and high sense of the distinguished and exemplary manner in which John Henry Ley, Esq., late Clerk of this House, uniformly discharged the duties of his situation, during his long attendance at the table of this House, for above 49 years’. Moving this resolution, the prime minister, Lord John Russell, paid tribute to Ley’s ‘readiness and courtesy’ in communicating with Members, drawing on ‘a mind stored with information relating to every subject by which the order and procedure of the House were regulated’.
PRICE £3,295
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