Mother of Pearl Sewing Compendium

• Victorian Period - The Victorian period of furniture and decorative arts design covers the reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1901. There was not one dominant style of furniture in the Victorian period. Designers used and modified many historical styles such as Gothic, Tudor, Elizabethan, English Rococo, Neoclassical and others, although use of some styles, such as English Rococo and Gothic tended to dominate the furniture manufacture of the period.
  
  The Victorian period was preceded by the Regency and William IV periods, and followed by the Edwardian period, named for Edward VII (1841 ? 1910) who was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India for the brief period from 1901 until his death in 1910.
• Compendium - A compendium is usually a wooden box that has several compartments and drawers for storing the various items. A stationery compendium would be used for storing and organizing various personal or business items including documents, business cards, passports, and other items that need to be organized and easily accessible. It is typically a wooden box t
  
  A compendium for correspondence would usually have pockets for holding different sizes of envelopes, and sometimes may have a built-in address book or a calendar. It can also have a pen loop or holder, and sometimes a calculator.
  
  
  A compendium for games would usually have pockets for holding game pieces, cards and sometimes rule books. It can also have a space for a chess or checkers board.
  
  
  
  A sewing compendium would have compartments for thimbles, bobbins, needles etc.
  
  
• Mother-Of-Pearl - Mother-of-pearl, technical name "nacre", is the inner layer of a sea shell. The iridescent colours and strength of this material were widely used in the nineteenth century as an inlay in jewellery, furniture, (especially papier mache furniture) and musical instruments.
  
  In the early 1900s it was used to make pearl buttons. Mother-of-pearl is a soft material that is easily cut or engraved.
  
  Nowadays it is a by-product of the oyster, freshwater pearl mussel and abalone industries.

This item has been included into following indexes:

• sewing, implements and accessories - compendia 56