Antique Copper Matchsafe with Chained Lid, Perfect Patina vintage bookends It is in excellent condition

It is in excellent condition

Obvious dryness and cracking as well as paint loss

as "Damn the torpedoes

At 13" inches across it is not large

so thickly caked with old oil paint it is truly three dimensional

Antique Copper Matchsafe with Chained Lid, Perfect Patina vintage bookends It is in excellent conditionTo my eye, this antique copper match safe is a perfect object beautiful form completely wed to function, out of this world patina, and the presence of the hand of its maker all over it. My guess, though I am not 100% certain, is that is it Civil War era. It would make sense for wartime use that the lid be attached via chain to prevent losing it and happily this yielded these gorgeous weld marks attaching the chain to the lid and back of the vessel.