WONDERFUL WOODEN BOXES
‘Treen’ is a term used to describe an item made out of wood, ie a tree. In antique and collecting circles, treen is a collecting area in its own right. There are dealers and collectors who appreciate the wonderful qualities of old objects made from wood, usually small items such as sewing accessories, kitchenalia and perhaps more commonly, storage boxes. Wood is a long lasting product that changes and enhances with age. The overall patina of antique wood simply glows and makes us want to run our hand across its surface.
‘Treen’ covers a multitude of subjects, but for this purpose we take a look at collecting wooden boxes.
Wooden boxes make a great collecting area – they appear at auction frequently, vary in size/quality and more importantly are often very affordable and represent very good value for money today. In addition they can also make a fine functional display in the home and could prove to be a good investment. One could concentrate on a particular type of box such as tea caddies, a certain period in time or even the wood used in the construction. For example exotic hardwoods such as coromandel, rosewood and amboyna are particularly rich in grain and thus very sought after.
The small tea caddy shown dates from the mid eighteenth century and is made of mahogany. Of a caddy shape, it has a small brass loop handle and escutcheon. It sold recently at auction for £220.
Designs of wooden boxes in the Regency period, (c.1810-1830) often took inspiration form ancient Rome. Boxes have been seen with claw feet and a favourite shape was the sarcophagus or tomb. Rosewood was a popular Regency veneer and the work box shown has mother of pearl inlay. A box such as this would fetch £100-180 at auction.
Most of the wooden boxes that appear in the saleroom will derive from the Victorian period, (1837-1901). It was a period of much prosperity and a time when the middle classes formed the backbone of Britain. There was great demand for boxes to contain commodities such as tea, sewing implements, (work boxes) gloves, writing implements and so on. The favoured wood of the period was walnut, with burr walnut and amboyna being the more expensive. Box forms and decoration followed the fashions of the day, the most prominent being Gothic. Very often pierced brass gothic mounts and even polished cabochons adorned caskets and appealed to Victorian tastes for the dramatic. Boxes with extensive inlay such as the Tunbridge parquetry box and marquetry casket shown are works of art in their own right are eagerly collected and can fetch many hundreds of pounds.
The Edwardian era was much more restrained, with influences taken from earlier elegant styles such as Sheraton, Hepplewhite and Chippendale. The sophisticated mahogany hinged casket shown dating from c.1910 sold for £180.
It is not just antique boxes which are collectable. The satinwood cigarette table casket shown dates from the 1930’s and clearly shows Art Deco influences. Look out for other boxes from the Art Deco period covered in sharkskin (shagreen) and those stamped ‘Asprey’ as these have added luxury value.
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