Edwina Cholmeley-Jones - Bandboxes: Tips, Tools, and Techniques for Learning the Craft

An assortment of bandboxes by Edwina Cholmeley-Jones.

M aking bandboxes is a wonderful and satisfying craft. Bandboxes are traditionally made of paste-board and sewn together with linen thread, and then covered with wallpaper and lined with newspaper. You can make bandboxes either by copying the shapes of antique examples or by designing your own boxes for specific items. Besides being decorative, bandboxes are very useful. They can be made in many different shapes and sizes to accommodate specific contents. The largest box I have made was for a pair of riding boots and the smallest was a bonnet box for a dollhouse.

My interest in history is what led me thirty years ago to take a class at the Landis Valley Museum in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to learn how to reproduce nineteenth-century bandboxes. It was so enjoyable, and I was so intrigued by the unique quality and historic importance of bandboxes, that I was inspired to pursue the craft and pass it on.

During the course of my career, I have supplied bandboxes to many museum shops, including the Museum of American Folk Art, Winterthur, the Brandywine River Museum, the Moravian Book and Gift Shop, and the Landis Valley Museum. One of my favorite commissions was to reproduce bandboxes for the National Park Service to be used at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. I also designed a special box to display maps for the National Park Service rangers.

I have been honored to have my bandboxes featured in various publications, including American Country Christmas, McCalls Needlework and Crafts, House Beautiful, and the first issue of Womens World. For many years, I have demonstrated bandbox making at Landis Valley Museum, and I have been teaching classes on the craft for more than twenty years at the Institute of Pennsylvania Rural Life at Landis Valley.

In this book, I provide you with the necessary instructions, techniques, and inspiration for making your own bandboxes.

A Brief History of Bandboxes

A bandbox covered by hand-block-printed wallpaper of a bird perched in a tree. LANDIS VALLEY MUSEUM, PENNSYLVANIA HISTORICAL AND MUSEUM COMMISSION

B andboxes originated in sixteenth-century England during the Elizabethan era, when it was fashionable for men and women to wear elaborate starched ruffs around their necks. These were stored in special boxes to keep them pristine. When the austere Puritan Oliver Cromwell came to power in 1653, he did away with this fashion. He wore a simple band with minimal lace and kept it in a box, originating the name bandbox. In America, most bandboxes were made between 1825 and 1850, although the earliest known wallpaper box was documented in the 1636 record of the estate of Sarah Dillington of Ipswich, Massachusetts.

The demand for boxes coincided with the industrialization of America. Previously, an ordinary family had few possessions, and a simple blanket chest was adequate storage for the whole family. With the advent of factories, however, more products became available. People were earning more money, enabling them to buy extra possessions, and they needed storage for them. Also during this period, new forms of transportation emerged. Steamboats, canals, and railroads made traveling easier and more affordable, causing an increased demand for luggage. Bandboxes helped fill this need.

There was such a demand for these wall-paper-covered cardboard or wooden boxes that both men and women could earn a living making them. A cottage industry developed, and wallpaper dealers sold the boxes. Individuals also made their own boxes at home to fill their particular needs. Many different sizes and shapes were made to accommodate myriad items, from thimbles and pins to gloves and bonnets to large celluloid hoop underskirts. The boxes were relatively inexpensive, with a large one costing fifty cents and a small one for as little as twelve cents.