Thread: Coffin Box Deconstructed

Thanks Ignatz!

The more I read about this method of construction, the more likely it seems that you are correct about cooked wheat paste being used as a binder/glue for the wrappings.

I would dearly like to know more about this side or cottage industry, too, but despite trying hard over a number of years I have yet to find anything definitive.

One lead I did pick up was about making small boxes (pill boxes, snuff boxes and so on) out of card, assembled in the same manner as the coffin boxes. The finish was to resemble black japanned ware, and several spirit varnishes were used. The black ones either contained a pigment like lamp black dissolved in a resinous gum such as copal and thinned with turpentine or white spirit. Coach-builders used the same recipe, but substituted the finest grade pitch or asphalt for the pigment, but I suppose that the coffin boxes used a much cheaper alternative like Brunswick Black which was hard pitch dissolved in spirits.

The 'gilded' lettering was done by finely grinding a cheap alloy - dutch metal (also known as dutch gold) and adding it to a resin, then painting it on. Much cheaper and quicker than proper gilding.

Regards,
Neil