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In today’s post I will be reviewing; Chatsworth Box Easel
Box Easel
Product Details
- Chatsworth Box Easel; brand/maker unknown
Reason For Buying
I was looking for an adjustable table top easel for drawing and watercolouring, when I found this Chatsworth one. The Winsor and Newton Eden table easel I had been using made my board too high up when I sat to the table with it. This looked like a good alternative.
Pros/Cons
Pros
- Really Stable
- Secure closures on the box
- Quality robust handle
- Super surface to work on, weather you are using a board or a sketch book
- Fully adjustable working angle
- Protective feet on base of short end as well as for when the easel is standing open on your table.
- Can be used on a table or if you can find/make one a stand.
- Folds down to a compact size for storage/travel
- There is storage within the box for your materials and dividers which you can alter the position of too.
- A robust sturdy easel for many different artistic styles. I’ve had mine for YEARS
Size: 33 x 43 x 10 cm
Weighs: 2 kg
Cons
- The box I have is made of beech, this makes it long-lasting and substantial but it also makes it heavy, even before you add materials to the inside of the box. BUT due to my dexterity problems I am Eric Feeble in that respect, for able-bodied users, check the empty box weight, listed above.
- Place your internal box dividers carefully. It is very useful that you can store materials inside the box, but if you are going to stand the easel on its end for storage, make sure your precious materials don’t rattle around too much.
Build Quality
Fantastic. Super smooth finishing on all surfaces, inside and out. Corners of the box are curved which make it comfortable in use. The fixings, closures and handle are all robust and well made too.
Value for Money
Excellent. I paid around £40 for mine but there are a lot of online places that offer similar items at very competitive prices and if you shop at sale time you can find some amazing deals. For the quality of the product and how robust it is, its well worth full rrp.
Would I buy it Again?
Yes. I would recommend it to everyone.
Summing up
I have used a few different styles of easel over the years but this is the one I love. It has superb adjustability, some other table easels are like the old-fashioned deck chairs in that there are set heights available and that’s it. If you want to use this for different media, the fact you can choose your own angles is very helpful.
You can get a lot of materials within the box and it folds down for storage making it good for travelling too. I’ve had this one for almost ten years now, I bought it and its stand in Cross’s art shop, which sadly is no more. At the time I bought it, there was also a folding stand, which means you can choose your location. Haven’t seen a stand on the market in the research I did for this articles links, but it would be fairly simple to construct one if you or your other half is handy with DIY. Let me know if you want to see the stand I’m using and I’ll take a photo of it.
Inside the Box Easel
Links
As I mentioned I’ve had this easel for over ten years and the original store I bought it from is no longer trading. I have done a search online for SIMILAR products. There are a choice of materials which you can find this style of easel made from. I have seen bamboo and also beech.
Jacksons Art Supplies have two sizes of box easel made from beech.
The Society for all Artists; SAA, have a bamboo box easel
- BBE £34.99 for non members but members of the society can get this for £30.99
Finding an easel that suits you is a bit like finding a car, or getting your car seat in the right place. It takes a while and needs experiment to find what works for you. Personally I found this easel the most adjustable and the most stable. I don’t have the dexterity to get the three-legged easels adjustment bolts done up tightly enough to keep them secure. This works for me for pencil sketching and as I have full control over the angle can change the angle I use it at, when I want to use watercolour. This is a good all-round easel and doesn’t take a whole lot of room to store. Having ‘onboard’ storage within the case, cuts down on the number of extra items you need to carry on field trips too.
Best wishes and thanks for reading, see you soon
Billie 
**UPDATE 19 Feb 2012**
Just found Chatsworth Earl Box easel on Amazon for £16.99
Go to Billie's Craft Room on Pinterest
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