This is designated as one of the many variations of the makers (W&N) College boxes that were and still are very popular. They offer usually a no frills approach or a down to business attitude. This one is a Scholastic watercolour box.
Nearly all of them show an often battered metal label inside stating the model but this one has both a metal label stamp and also a paper label. Almost miraculously this label is still intact which is most unusual considering it was used in schools!
I suspect that this is quite an early box and really is very solid and will easily outlast any modern ones. In my opinion, it probably dates from around the 1940s.
Its condition is not at all bad considering who was using it. Although it is clearly marked on the outside, I have seen much worse and when you factor in the good interior, it’s not in poor shape at all.
It also has a full set of WN stamped (Scholastic Quality) Bakelite square pans with paint which is really nice! Finally there is an almost full complement of paint tubes which are as follows
Indian Yellow
Cobalt Blue
Emerald Green
Mauve
Chinese White
Indigo Tint
Purple Lake
Lamp Black
The Indian Yellow and Mauve have had the bottoms of the tubes cut off, which I presume was to access the paint more easily. All of these paint tubes are hard and set but this is to be expected for watercolour tubes and should hopefully be usable again with the rehydration of water.
Please see my other items for antique boxes, paints and artists materials.