Featured Wooden chest with a strange lid

I bought this wooden chest a while ago. It measures 50 (20") x 35 (14") x 25(10") cm and I believe is it from around 1800. The lid of the chest has some strange markings, so I believe it is made of recycled wood.

Does anyone agree with my dating? Does anyone recognizes the markings on the lid. I have no idea.

Thank you for looking at it!


The bottom




The lid



What is this strange mark?

 

nice box....
the mark looks like it was embedded by accident , not on purpose..

 

Thank you for replying! The strange mark can be an accident yes, but the floral design in the right corner, is not I guess.

 

I see chisel-cuts all along that curve...it is of fairly uniform depth & width except for the upper portion.
I believe there's intent in the design. Just sayin'...

 

If it was put there it could be the remains of some handle, but the place makes no sense to put a handle there.

 

Could it be the box was made from repurposed wood back when it was made and the markings are irelevent to any meanings ? Would've liked to have seen a picture of the entire top though

 

The photo is of the entire top. I could make some extra photo’s tomorrow in daylight.

 

Oh, OK, I just didn't see any border around the picture and though it was a partial.

 

Nice old box, possibly earlier than your estimate. I agree that some work could have been done to it, maybe the runners underneath were a later addition?

And a detail photo of one of the corner designs please.

 

Here are some more detail pics.

The top

 

Thanks, yes, recycled. That top is very old, and I imagine it was either shortened from a longer lid,or originally upright and from a different piece altogether.

Could you show us the edge of the other, plain, side of the lid, a sideview? Does it look different from the other edges of the lid?

 

Here are the other two corners, they seem not tooled at all. Therefor I think it was a reused piece of wood.

 

Yes, reused in its entirety. Difficult to see the detail with all that lovely wear, but that lid could be 16th century imo.

 

That is cool! Thank you. So it matches my old paper

 

Y'all are probably right, and this is probably wrong, but the thought that popped into my mind was that the maker started to make an ornate lid, changed their mind before finishing it, and just flipped the lid over.

 

Maybe mad the box and started carving it afterward in spare time but didn't finish. Much like most of my projects!

 

All those pics and not one of the inside of the lid or the lock ?

 

The more I look at it, the more I suspect it is a product of many modifications.



The inside of the lock, it looks quite modern to me...



This lock would not work I guess.

 

Much used, much needed, so kept in working order.
Maybe the purpose also changed over time, and the plinth and runners added for use as a small blanket chest instead of a valuables box, for instance.