needle case; textile

Needle box formed of three interconnected boxes. Outermost is an upright rectangular box, made of what appears to be cardboard, covered in gold paper, with chromolithographed images of children pasted onto on each of the four outer panels. A hinged, attached lid, the top of which is padded dark red silk to form a pincushion, with a cut-out paper picture of roses on top. When the lid is lifted, all four sides of the box fall down and open out to form needle pads. Being only attached to the base, they reveal a smaller, middle box constructed in the same way but at a diagonal angle within the first, and without a lid, the four sides of which also fall open. This inner box has gold cardboard sides, but the inner sides of both this and the outer box are padded red silk with a band of red leather across the centre of each. In the very centre stands a third, smaller, upright box with solid sides decorated with pictures and a separate small dark red silk padded lid; the inside is covered in blue paper. The innermost box would have held a thimble.