Watercolour Box

Reeves & Son, the manufacturer of artist materials, started to make watercolour paint boxes in 1766. The paint boxes included not only dry paint cakes, a tray for mixing paints, brushes but also water pot which meant that this portable paint box could be taken for painting outdoors on location.

This one, by Rowney, Dillon, & Rowney is a lovely c.1844 compact paint box made in London which has two mixing porcelain palettes: one flat in a bottom tray and the second one in the top compartment. It still holds variety of the original paint cakes.