How often do these come up for sale?

About ten a year on Sellingantiques, from an archive of 115 listings. Fifty-five different dealers have listed one. That spread tells you something: it's a category almost every box dealer meets occasionally, and almost none stocks in depth.

What shape are the caddies?

Shape gets named surprisingly often for so small an object. The caddies alone run oblong, hexagonal, octagonal, decagonal, bow-fronted, casket-shaped and domed. Single and double compartments both appear, and a pair of miniature caddies sits among the highest listings in the archive.

Are snuff boxes common in this category?

Yes. Snuff appears in 23 of 115 titles, the second most common form after the caddy. Around them sit the other pocket-sized boxes: patch, needle, pill, ring, toothpick, stud and cufflink boxes, and cigar cases. As a group they anchor the lower part of the range.

Which periods do these boxes come from?

The dated field spans 1750 to 1930. Four listings sit in the 1750s, the earliest bracket in the archive, and every one of them is a tea caddy. The nineteenth century dominates, whether labelled Regency, Georgian, Victorian or simply 19th Century. Only eight listings are twentieth century, four in the 1910s and four in the 1920s.

Do these boxes carry maker's names?

Rarely. A scan of the archive returned no maker name reaching even two dealers, so this isn't a category read by signature. What listings name instead is material, shape and mounts: blonde or well-figured shell, silver or gilt metal, piqué, stringing.

What unusual forms turn up?

Alongside the caddies and snuff boxes, the archive holds caskets, sewing and work boxes, jewellery, stationery and writing boxes. A handful of forms surface only once each: a toothpick box, a stud or cufflink box, a games box, a desk tray, a military hat box, a lady's handbag and a Ceylon Dutch Colonial betel-nut casket.

Home > Boxes > Tortoiseshell Boxes > Page 2

Antique Tortoiseshell Boxes

21 items · page 2 of 2

← Page 2 of 2 →

Small lidded boxes veneered or mounted in tortoiseshell, made to hold things that were once costly enough to deserve a costly container: tea, snuff, patches, pins and jewellery.