French Travel Necessaire, Gentleman's Necessaire de Voyage

An early decorative box by Piero Fornasetti, circa 1950, in sheet metal with interior wood box, painted in an early burnt orange color decorated with lithograph pistols. Very chic ac...

An English Regency wine cellarette circa 1820 in rosewood with inlaid brass monogram "CH" and tree symbol, with inset brass handles on the sides, the interior fitted with partitions....

A French Country Buffet de Chasse in blonde walnut, mid-late 18th century, the rectangular wood top with rounded corners, over 2 small frieze drawers and 2 arched paneled doors, conc...

A charming portrait of a young Empire period gentleman with an earring, under glass in a period gild wood frame. Oil pastel on paper, French, circa 1800.

An early 19th century French provincial biblioteque in walnut, with upper case with adjustable shelves and wire-grill doors over a lower pair of paneled cabinet doors, circa 1810.

A 1930’s era trade sign in sheet metal with yellow and blue enamel decoration advertising a Coiffeur with a two digit phone number. Great decoration for a salon or barber shop.

A work of extraordinary craftsmanship, this exquisite English vanity case is as much an item of luxury as it is of necessity. Known as a nécessaire de voyage...

A wonderful English coromandel travel case, or necessaire de voyage, boasts toiletries adorned with Victorian silver, cut crystal, and mother-of-p...

Antique Walnut Gentleman's Vanity Dressing or Travel Box. It includes a red velvet interior and original crystal and silver-plated jars and box with a secret compartment that is spri...

Exquisite antique travelling case or victorian nécessaire de voyage A work of extraordinary craftsmanship, this exquisite English vanit...

This is an antique gentleman's travelling box. An Anglo-Indian, teak and brass bound correspondence case, dating to the Victorian period, circa 1880....

This is a stunning antique Victorian Coromandel gentleman's travelling vanity case with fitted interior, circa 1865 in date. This rectagular shaped traveling case is made of rare coromandel wood and features a blank brass plaque. The interior is well fitted with Sheffield silver plate mounted jars, bottles and shaving tools, displayed on fitted blue velvet. The secret button at the front of the case opens a sprung secret drawer below, for your jewellery. The underside of the lid has a velvet backed mirror and a compartment for hiding your letters. Complete with working Bramah lock and original key. It is a beautiful piece which will look stunning on your dressing table. Condition: In really excellent condition. Please see photos for confirmation. Dimensions in cm: Height 9 x Width 26 x Depth 19 Dimensions in inches: Height 3 inches x Width 10 inches x Depth 7 inches Calamander wood or Coromandel wood is a valuable wood from India, Sri Lanka and South East Asia. It is of a hazel-brown color, with black stripes (or the other way about), very heavy and hard. It is also known as Macassar Ebony or variegated ebony and is closely related to genuine ebony, but is obtained from different species in the same genus; one of these is Diospyros quaesita Thwaites, from Sri Lanka. The name Calamander comes from the local sinhalese name, 'kalu-medhiriya', which means dark chamber; referring to the characteristic ebony black wood. Coromandel wood has been logged to extinction over the last 2 to 3 hundred years and is no longer available for new work in any quantity. Furniture in coromandel is so expensive and so well looked after that even recycling it is an unlikely source. A substitute, Macassar Ebony, has similar characteristics and to the untrained eye is nearly the same but it lacks the depth of colour seen in genuine Coromandel. Travelling cases became very popular towards the end of the 18th century. They were manufactured specifically to accompany upper class gentleman during travel. Dressing cases were originally rather utilitarian but they spoke volumes about their owners’s wealth and place in society, as at that time, traveling was only done by the elite. Gentleman’s dressing cases would contain bottles and jars for colognes, aftershaves and creams as well as essential shaving and manicure tools. As these boxes became more popular, many further traveling item options were offered for inclusion. By the early Victorian era, ladies also began to travel and suddenly their requirements were anything but utilitarian! Ladies dressing cases could feature a wide range of decorative bottles and jars as well as a vast array of beautifcation tools, all designed with pure luxury in mind. The exterior of the box became almost as important as the interior and these boxes started being veneered with beautiful exotic woods from all over the world. As demand for gentleman’s boxes lessened, the dressing case started to also become known by the more feminine term ‘vanity box’. These boxes, with their excessive price tags, were now considered as true works of art and beauty in themselves, and were often bought as status symbols rather than actual traveling companions. Some of the finest examples of travelling cases made from exotic wood with gold and silver fittings come from: Walter Thornhill, Betjamann & Sons and Jenner...