Jewellery, Watches, Antiquities and Objects of Vertu

A Victorian coromandel and Derbyshire Ashford marble inlaid stationery box and matching blotter, the box with applied gilt metal mounts, the hinged lid centred with an oval panel with a spray of white jasmine with malachite leaves, within a ropetwist gilt surround, opening to reveal a leather and watered silk lined interior, (missing retailer’s name plate, probably for Parkins & Gotto), together with matching desk blotter, silk and leather lined, enclosing sheets of blotting paper, dimensions of first: 23.8 x 18.5 x 14.5cm; second 30 x 21.5cm. £500-£700

Ashford black marble is the name given to a dark limestone, quarried in mines near Ashford-in-the-Water, in Derbyshire. Once cut, turned and polished, it has a high shine to the surface and was used particularly in the late 18th century / early 19th century for decorative objects such as table tops, urns, obelisks and small decorative items, the black marble being inlaid with distinctive flowers and leaves or geometric patterns. The original quarry had been owned by the Cavendish family since 1550 when Sir William Cavendish (married to the famous Bess of Hardwick, builder of the first house at Chatsworth) bought the manor of Ashford and it was owned by his successors, the Earls and Dukes of Devonshire, for three centuries. The Ashford quarries, mines and marble works were all located on the estates of the Dukes of Devonshire.
Henry Watson is regarded as one of the key figures in the development of the local industry of inlaying Ashford black marble, with the opening of the Ashford Marble Works in 1748. The little village of Ashford was to become the centre of this thriving trade during the late 18th and early 19th century.
See: Derbyshire Black Marble by John Michael Tomlinson, Pub. Peak District Mines Historical Society, Jan 1996.