Tunbridgen.
/ˈtʌnbrɪdʒ/ 1. Used attributively to designate water from the chalybeate spring at Royal Tunbridge Wells.
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the world > the earth > water > spring > [adjective] > spec
Tunbridgea1661
a1661 T. Fuller Worthies (1662) Kent 62 Tunbridge-water... Good for Splenitick distempers.
1678 Sir T. Browne Let. 1 May (1946) 92 He may hopefully drink Tunbridge waters..if they passe well.
c1702 C. Fiennes Journeys (1947) 125 Tunbridge waters whose property is to retrieve lost limbs that are benumbed.
1967 E. S. Turner Taking Cure iii. 46 Nothing was to be gained from the Tunbridge waters unless the person who drank them was facetious, merry..and jovial.
2. Also Tonbridge. Used attributively (rarely absol.) to designate wooden articles with a characteristic mosaic decoration, made in and about Royal Tunbridge Wells and nearby Tonbridge by slicing cross-sections from a bundle of thin strips of differently coloured wood glued together, to obtain identical copies of the pattern for sticking on the article to be decorated; chiefly in Tunbridge ware.
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society > leisure > the arts > visual arts > ornamental art and craft > inlaying, etc., in wood > [noun] > types of inlaid work
marquetry1563
tarsia1665
Tunbridge ware1773
stringing1812
parquetry1816
Reisner1833
parquetage1845
intarsiatura1863
tarkashi1878
parquet work1880
intarsia1894
Shibayama1928
seaweed-marquetry1935
society > leisure > the arts > visual arts > ornamental art and craft > inlaying, etc., in wood > [adjective] > types of inlaid work
Tunbridge1773
intarsia1867
herringbone1937
society > occupation and work > materials > raw material > wood > [noun] > articles made of wood > of laid wood
Tunbridge ware1842
1773 R. Graves Spiritual Quixote I. ii. xiii. 101 His Tunbridge-ware tobacco-dish.
c1795 Advt. C. Fellows's Circul. Library, Salisbury With various Articles in Tunbridge, Ivory, and Morocco.
1816 J. Austen Emma III. iv. 50 A pretty little Tunbridge-ware box. View more context for this quotation
1842 F. Marryat Percival Keene I. ix. 98 In the front windows..were..prints, caricatures, and Tonbridge ware.
1888 Encycl. Brit. XXIII. 607/1 Tunbridge ware..includes work tables, boxes, toys, &c.
1901 J. Black Illustr. Carpenter & Builder Ser.: Home Handicrafts 61 Developments of the art of what may be termed ‘wood mosaic’, and amongst these may be reckoned ‘Tarsia work’ and ‘Tonbridge work’.
1934 N. Marsh Man lay Dead xiii. 237 I suddenly remembered..a funny Victorian casket made out of inlaid wood... Antique dealers call those caskets..Tunbridge boxes.
1973 Times 25 Aug. 11/5 It has a Tunbridge-ware change-tray and an Edward vii crown set into the base.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1933; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.a1661