Which form turns up most often?

The inlaid tea caddy, by a wide margin. "Caddy" appears in 55 of 198 titles and "tea caddy" in 54, and "inlaid" is the single commonest word in the titles. The sampled caddies run from small twin-compartment boxes and octagonal or oval shapes up to sarcophagus and hexagonal forms, some with domed tops.

Rosewood leads, then walnut, mahogany and satinwood. Those four cover the bulk of the carcases and veneers described. The decorative timbers are named far more widely than that suggests. Burr yew, burr thorn, burr maple, partridge wood, harewood, amboyna, tulipwood, calamander, thuya, kingwood, olive, lignum and Gonçalo Alves all appear in listings.

Are these all English?

Mostly, but not entirely. French turns up in 12 titles, and a persistent seam of other origins runs through the archive. That seam takes in Italian souvenir marquetry and Renaissance-revival caskets, Dutch marquetry boxes, Japanese lacquer worked with marquetry, Swiss cylinder musical boxes, an Irish slope and one Persian piece.

How old are marquetry boxes?

Dealer-entered dates span 1750 to 1930, with 60 listings carrying a clean year. The earliest clean years in the samples are two pieces dated 1750, a burr thorn wood caddy and a tortoiseshell and boulle caddy. A handful of samples sit outside that span. Seventeenth-century lace boxes and caskets appear at one end, and at the other a Persian tissue box and an Art Deco sunray-inlaid caddy, both 1930.

Do dealers specialise in these?

Barely. Around 25 come up a year on Sellingantiques, and 90 different dealers have listed one. That means most have handled a single example rather than carrying the category as a line.

What unusual pieces appear under this heading?

One-offs surface that fit none of the usual branches. A Napoleonic prisoner-of-war straw work box, an Art Deco secret safe made to look like a book, a French ballot box and an inlaid coal box have all been listed. At the larger end there are stationery cabinets, correspondence chests and teapoys raised on stands, alongside pairs and matched pairs of Georgian mahogany knife boxes.

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Antique Marquetry Boxes

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A small lidded wooden box decorated with inlaid veneers rather than carving or paint, made to dress up a plain carcase and to signal the worth of what it held, from tea to needlework.