Tartanware

These wee treasures dating from over 150 years ago. They are the perfect mixture of Scottish history, the decorative arts, and a time-capsule of the Victorian lifestyle.  One of the best-known creators of these tartanware mementos - W&A Smith - began custom-painting papers with clan tartans and then varnishing the sheets onto Mauchline wood boxes, creating the well-known tartanware boxes we know today. In true Victorian fashion, these mementos celebrated the classic 19th-century lifestyle. There were tartanware containers hiding a tiny compass, small boxes to carry one's snuff, and endless variations on stamp and pill boxes and sewingtools.