19th century AD

Magazine Antiques, Sept, 2004 by Noel Riley

The relationship between penwork, a form of painted decoration on wood practiced primarily by amateurs between about 1820 and 1850, and the furniture and textiles of British India is an intriguing one and touches upon the many exchanges of artistic influence between Europe and the Orient over the course of two centuries.

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In June 1810 Rudolph Ackermann's stylish, and style-influencing, periodical, the Repository of Arts, referred to decoration "on a black ground, in imitation of Indian ivory inlaid work," (1) and this appears to be the earliest reference to the technique we now call penwork. In December 1816 the magazine offered the following, more expansive, comment:

Among the many pleasing recreations of the fair sex, is that of painting
and ornamenting Tunbridge and fancy ware, which at once becomes an
elegant and useful amusement. The figures are relieved with black,
purposely to shew the effect when finished on the work-box, cabinet or
screen; and when varnished, has the appearance of ivory inlaid on ebony.
(2)

Penwork was usually executed on light-colored woods such as sycamore or, especially for larger items, pine. (3) Sometimes the wood surface was prepared with a coating of gesso or isinglass diluted in water with a little white pigment added. The designs were created by forming reserves of the light-colored wood against a painted black background and working up the details with fine pens or brushes (see Fig. 1). The decoration is usually in black and white, but sometimes in other colors or with colors added to the black-and-white scheme. The natural darkening of the wood with exposure to sunlight and the discoloration of varnish through age account for the yellowish appearance of the once-white parts on most penwork found today (see Pl. I).

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Penwork is sometimes regarded as an offshoot of japanning, the European imitation of oriental lacquerwork, but whereas japanning is "the art of covering bodies by grounds of opaque colours in varnish, which may either be afterwards decorated by paintings or gilding, or left in a plain state," (4) penwork is a watercolor painting technique, with varnish merely applied as a protection for the finished decoration. The differences between japanning and penwork are not always clear; however, particularly in examples of chinoiserie decoration in colors, and the confusion is compounded by the fact that late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century writers on furniture appear to have used the terms interchangeably. (5)

Professionally drawn penwork decoration appears on chairbacks from the early nineteenth century, on so-called Tunbridge wares of between about 1810 and 1830, (6) and on the wooden objects made in Mauchline, Scotland, during the 1820s. While often finely executed, professional penwork tends to be repetitive and rather mechanical. A little before 1820 penwork became a popular pastime among gentlewomen, many of whom were clearly endowed with both artistic skill and perseverance, judging by the exceptional objects they made for their own private purposes rather than financial gain.

Their efforts can be seen on a huge variety of small objects, but particularly on tea caddies; boxes for needlework, stationery, and games; visiting-card cases; face screens; and table cabinets. Their more ambitious under-takings included the tops of sofa tables and chessboards, usually mounted on table bases that might also be decorated with penwork. Chiffoniers and side cabinets (sometimes in pairs), double cabinets, and cabinets on stands are among the finest manifestations of the craft, their drawer fronts and cupboard doors as well as tops and sides offering maximum opportunities for decoration. Generally one-of-a-kind, these objects are characteristically covered in ornament beyond commercial viability. They demonstrate a wide range of skills, from the hesitant attempts of beginners (see Pl. VIII) to the feats of virtuoso painters.

The evidence for amateur penwork is underpinned by the step-by-step instructions included in the many pastime manuals specifically directed at ladies and by the advertisements for patterns and equipment for penwork sold by artists' retailers. Of these, the best known in London were Rudolph Ackermann's Repository of Arts on the Strand and Samuel and Joseph Fuller's Temple of Fancy on Rathbone Place, but there were others in London and more in the provinces. They sold undecorated boxes and other objects, and colored papers for lining them, together with the pigments and brushes for carrying out the decoration. Fuller's, for example, kept on hand

an extensive collection of handsome screens, both Plain and Ornamented,
Screen-Poles, elegant Stands for Table-Tops and Chess-Boards,
Card-Racks, Flower Ornaments, and White-Wood Boxes, in a variety of
shapes, for painting the inlaid Ebony and Ivory, with every requisite
useful for Painting and Ornamenting the same. (7)

From the evidence offered by dated examples, it is clear that the craft reached a peak of popularity during the 1820s and continued through the 1830s and 1840s. (8) Pastime manuals continued to include patterns and directions for penwork until the 1880s, and designs for a type of penwork under the heading "Marqueterie Staining" have been noted as late as 1900. (9)