Object Record
Images
Additional Images [1]
Metadata
Object ID # |
1961.038.021ab |
Object Name |
Box, Trinket |
Title |
Painted Lacquered Box |
Lexicon category |
7: Distribution & Transportation Artifact |
Year Range from |
1830 |
Year Range to |
1849 |
Artist |
Unidentified |
Made |
Unknown |
Place of Origin |
Scotland, United Kingdom? England, United Kingdom? |
Description |
Black-finished, shallow round 2-pce box (a & b) with a portrait of a woman on it. The two pieces have a glossy black finish to them, suggesting that they are lacquered papier-mache. There is no maker's name or label present. The base of the box is undecorated. It is 8.3 cm in diameter at its bottom. Its bottom edge is slightly pronounced. The walls of the box are short, only 1 cm deep. The exterior walls slightly taper and then there is a rim for the lid to tightly fit on top of the base, without any fasteners. Its top edge is pronounced and black. Inside the edge is an orangy-brown background with a colourful illustration of a woman in an 1830s style dress. She has a large red hat with several large white plumes. Her curled brown hair is arranged above her ears. She has pink-coloured, pendulous cheeks. An orange-coloured ribbon-like item hangs from her hat over her right shoulder. She is wearing a simple red necklace. Her dress is dark green with huge white sleeves and a red-coloured band at her waist. It appears to be a hand-painted miniature. There is no artist's initials seen. |
Makers mark |
No marks |
Provenance |
The last owner, Eleanor Rixon (d. 1973), lived at 894 5th Avenue East, Owen Sound, Grey County where her parents had moved to in the late 19th-century. Her father, Henry Rixon, emigrated from England in 1860. Her mother Helen (neé Ainslie), was a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Adam Ainslie of Leith (they later moved to Owen Sound and lived with or near the Rixons). Adam Ainslie had emigrated from Scotland prior to 1846, as he married his wife, Isabelle Miller, at Galt, Upper Canada that year. The Ainslies moved to the Leith area of Sydenham Township, Grey County in the 1850s, and were somewhat well-to-do, as Mr. Ainslie had been a barrister and Reeve at Galt, and for a while he owned the Leith Distillery. In the 1880s, they moved to Owen Sound with the Rixons. In 1896 [year Miss Rixon said, likely was 1897 though], Mr. Ainslie died at the home of his son-in-law, Mr. Henry Rixon, in Owen Sound, Ontario. The Rixon sisters told museum staff that Adam Ainslie was Scottish. Andrew Armitage says in his article "Dock a Relic of Busy Village", SUN-TIMES, Owen Sound, Friday August 7, 2009, Page A5: "Born in Haddingtonshire, England in 1807, Ainslie became a lawyer at the age of 19. He practiced his profession at Gibraltar for a decade before quitting the Rock to come to Canada in 1834. Galt was his first stop and there he prospered. The very model of a Canadian gentleman, an actor, poet, politician and barrister." Armitage mentions how Ainslie oversaw the building of a wharf at Leith in Sydenham. It was completed in the summer of 1861. The Rixon burial plot is at Leith Cemetery, in the former Sydenham Township, and includes the following: William Augustus Rixon (b. 1869-d. 1892) Henry Rixon (father) 1838-1920 Helen Rixon (mother) 1847-1913 Ada A. Rixon 1874-1894 Ella A. Rixon 1871-1918 Alex A. Ainslie 1850-1887 Adam Ainslie 1807-1897 Isabella Ainslie 1828-1918 John Ainslie 1858-1923 Laura Rixon 1876-1963 Eleanor Rixon Dec. 27, 1973 William M. Burr 1861-1931 Frank Broderick 1856-1915 J. Jane Broderick 1867-1933 F. Rixon Broderick 1895-1958 |
Collection |
Fine Art Collection |
Material |
Papier Mache/Paint/Lacquer |
Dimensions |
H-2 Dia-8.3 cm |
Found |
Owen Sound, Grey County |
People |
Ainslie, Adam Rixon, Henry Rixon, Helen Rixon, Eleanor Ainslie, Isabella |
Subjects |
Boxes Fashion models |
Search Terms |
Leith (Village of) |