Early, Beautifully Detailed Carved Out Slide Lid Box homemade book I'm completely smitten with them

I'm completely smitten with them

I at least find animals with a few wounds all the more empathetic

it is composed of matchsticks: burned at their tips

but it looks like the nails were removed at some point at the strips were glued (though there is no glue showing

was finished with a hardened varnish or shellac and bears a great rich patina

Early, Beautifully Detailed Carved Out Slide Lid Box homemade book I'm completely smitten with themThis is quite an old box, I believe earlyish 19th c. if not older, and quite a wonderful one I think, carved out from one piece of wood, with a great deal of effort invested in decorative carving on the long sides cross hatching on one and a more complex pattern of chip carving on the other. I love the raised pull end of the slide lid, which looks rather like a pillow at the head of a bed, with a piece of iron stretched over the top looking rather