If you can believe it, I added a few antique art supplies to my collection earlier this year (timely happy-birthday-to-me purchases) and I haven’t shared them here on the blog!  I’ve been so busy with other things that I haven’t written about them even though I took pictures a while ago.  Anyway, today is the day I’m going to introduce you to an antique French drawing box I purchased from Julia of Ponder & Purchase.  I used to order a box of goodies from her a few times each year, but I was feeling pretty stocked with antique art supplies, so I haven’t ordered what we jokingly call my “P&P subscription box” in over a year.  I have some very nice art boxes, palettes, brushes, and all sorts of pens, pencils, and rulers that I’ve gotten very picky about what I buy.  This French drawing box was like nothing else I already had, so I jumped on it when Julia was running an Instagram flash sale.

The first thing that caught my eye about this antique French drawing box was the typography on the top of the box.  Isn’t it just wonderful?

Etude de La Perspective means “perspective study.”  From the photos of the listing, I could see that the box had a drawing board and looked like it tilted somehow to set it up as a table-top easel.  When I received it and had a chance to open the antique French drawing box, I was greeted by an intriguing note from Julia.,,

She usually tucks some extra gifts into my P&P boxes, so I thought she used the box as a container.  I lifted the drawing board…

…and was greeted with a collection of charcoal pencils, LeFranc pastels, and a few other things that were possibly either original to the box or added by an owner along the way.  Julia was right.  It was a wonderful surprise.

In addition to the antique French drawing box, I received a smattering of yummy art supplies including boxes of lead refills, a brass stylus and a bone stylus (likely used for gold leafing), a plumb line, a brass charcoal holder, a ceramic watercolor palette, a wood sanding block, nibs, a silver pencil holder, a letter opener, drawing pins, a glass pencil/brush tray, and a document from the 1700s.  (Julia knows I love old paper, letters, books, and documents and the older the better!)

I always love unpacking these treasures and imagining who used them.

I’m always cruising the internet to see what antique art supplies might be available, so here are a few tempting ones I found…