Toleware Document Box c. 1938

This is J. Howard Iams’s Toleware Document Box, made with watercolour and graphite. There’s a real craftsperson's eye at work here. The lines are precise and descriptive, but also slightly wonky, as though Iams wants to reveal the process of making. The box itself is all about surface. Look how the flowers and scallops feel almost stencilled on; bright red, green, and yellow against the dark brown body. Then, you notice these tiny, almost scratched-in marks on the larger surfaces. For me, it’s all about the tension between the smooth decoration and the slightly scuffed, worn surfaces. The decoration gives it a folk-art cheeriness, but the darker marks add a kind of melancholic atmosphere. It reminds me of a Joseph Cornell box, but flattened onto a 2D plane. And this drawing feels connected to the wider history of Toleware. It is work that embraces both precision and accident, inviting us to get lost in the act of looking.