Description

Fabulous unusually shaped Papier Mache Sewing Boxby Spiers & Son of Oxford. Still retains its original fitted interior and trade card. The fabulous view is of the famous Christ Church, Oxford University: its setting featured in Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited, and was used in the filming of the Harry Potter movies. The bottom edge to the right of the view is marked “t 2119″Richard James Spiers, born 1806 in Oxford, was a prominent figure in the town and in 1834 established a shop there selling “fancy goods and articles of virtu”, at 102 High Street. It soon became well-known for its papier mache souvenirs “ornamented with views of every college & public building in Oxford”. In 1851 he was elected Sheriff for Oxford, then Mayor in 1853. Around 1861 he expanded his shop to include 103 High Street, by which time his sons had joined the business. They continued this beyond Richard’s death in 1877, eventually closing in 1890.

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