Which form is most common?

The tea caddy, by a distance. Around a quarter of the listings on Sellingantiques are caddies, appearing as singles, twins and triples, and in oval, octagonal, hexagonal, bombé and sarcophagus shapes. Writing slopes and writing boxes come second, at roughly one in eight. Knife and cutlery boxes are third.

What does campaign mean on a mahogany box?

It means the box was built to travel with an officer or traveller. Brass binding on the corners and edges, flush handles and sturdy construction are the marks of it. The word appears in a good number of titles, and it overlaps heavily with the writing slopes. Gent's boxes, jewellery boxes, decanter cases and pistol cases turn up in the same group.

Are these boxes usually signed or stamped?

No maker's name recurs across the category. Listings are described by form, shape, timber and decoration rather than by workshop. Where a name does appear it stands alone, on a single piece, rather than pointing to a house style you'd meet again.

How reliable are the dates given in listings?

Only a minority of listings carry a clean year. The rest use period labels, with Georgian much the commonest, then 19th Century and Victorian. Where years are given they spread from 1700 to 1930, and the decade groupings are thin and scattered. A handful of entries carry a period label that doesn't match the title, so the field reads as dealer shorthand.

Do knife boxes come as pairs?

They're the form most often sold that way. Matched Georgian pairs and lidded cutlery urns occupy the very top of the range. Serpentine and bow fronts are usual on them, and silver mounts appear on some. Singles turn up too, and sit lower.

What unusual shapes turn up in this category?

Snuff takes odd forms: carved snuff shoes and high-heeled snuff boots, one measured at 110mm, plus a bellows-shaped snuff box. Beyond those, the samples throw up a funnel-shaped club voting box, a coopered money box, a four-section spice tower, a counter-top needle box for a haberdasher, a running-board tool box for a motor car and a free-standing hotel post box.

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Antique Mahogany Boxes

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Small mahogany-cased boxes made in Britain from the mid-18th century onwards, built to hold and lock away the things worth locking away: tea, cutlery, candles, writing materials, medicines and jewellery.