Queen Elizabeth Jubilee Box in Sterling Silver from Windsor & Newton, 1977

Where to begin, of its type this is the largest Winsor & Newton artist box you will ever see, its easily twice the size and weight of any I have come across, this was made as a presentation gift to Queen Elizabeth II on her Silver Jubilee in 1977, I have no IDEA if it was ever given to our good Queen as it doesn’t come with any paperwork, sadly Winsor and newton have donated all their historical archived data to the Hamilton Kerr Institute and at present they are waiting for funding to catalogue it all, once catalogued they will be able to tell the new owner the exact history of this piece

Now for this wonderful box where to begin, firstly as mentioned it is huge, the dimensions are below, this piece is exhibition size and quality throughout.

The box itself is Calamander wood, Winsor & Newton founded in 1832 have been making these types of boxes for well over 150 years, they were almost always allot more compact and designed primarily to be used on the go. The box is pinned in the corners with what looks like sterling silver nails and the sculptural hinges also look to be silver although I would imagine they are plated, the pièce de résistance of the box is the stunning 1977 Queens crown crested sterling silver Jubilee hallmarked plaque, it is a a work of art

Opening the box you find inside the lid a lovely water color template, running onto the first platform we find 6 numbered 100% cut crystal bottles, each engraved to the base with what looks like the Baccarat signature. The next row consists of 4 good sized sterling silver engraved boxes, two are original and bare all the same Jubilee sterling silver hallmarks, these hold inside sets of used and unused Carres Pastel crayons. The other two tins were missing so part of the restoration this lovely box went through was to have them made anew, Clive Burr at the Silversmiths college London undertook the project for me and the end result simply put is perfect. In between these silver boxes is a lovely pottery pot stamped to the base S inside a U, inside said pot is three natural sponges. The next row down has a sterling silver artists sharpener, a selection of 24 mixed watercolor tubes, there are two sliding removal shelves which house a total of 24 mixed brand new in the original packaging water color tabs, you have one custom-made to size tub with a yellow tab in

The first drawer houses five new old stock Winsor & Newton paint brushes, these aren’t the original brushes or perhaps they are but they were maybe used on the lower shelf. We then find four pottery mixing bowls silver leaf painted with the same hallmark S inside the U, in between these pots we have a pair of brand new in the original packaging Kneaded rubbers and a portable Winsor & Newton artist set with telescopic paint brush

The last drawer houses 16 new old stock Winsor & Newton artist brushes and then an absolutely magnificent original custom handmade Oxblood leather bound artist book, the book has handmade paper and the exact same size Jubilee Queen Elizabeth 1977 sterling silver plaque as the main box, it is mouth wateringly beautiful

So there you have it, a rather spectacular find and certainly the only one you will ever see, if you are in the market for simply put the finest example of this type of piece, I mean museum quality which is I’m sure will be where this ends up then look no further, this is the only one of its kind and will never be on the market for sale again