A new box - did I get it right?

That's a refined eye for only collecting since the beginning of the year-excellent !
You did your homework & said 'I won't have anything but the rarest',went on Etsy & damn well found it.Why not aim high ?
PS-And if times get tough,as they always do w/ the natural flux of the world-the 'best of the best' will always have a buyer.
....barring Apocalypse of course (we joke).

 

I like your white cat-we've had three.They await Us in the happy hunting ground.

 

ya...who's the cat ?

 

Probably something to do with my study and career in art? I'm pround of my taste for box & jewellery, thank you! And of course, lots of free time browsing new listings on ebay and etsy...

 

Wow you have three sweet angels then!

 

I need all the guardian angels I can get.I belonged to the hellfire club as a kid.
What kind of job did you get in the art world ?

 

Just an illustrator. It's a part-time job and I'm still uni student

 

Nice box!!! date is right, Coromandel wood. If you take a picture of the lock it might give more info. Etsy can be a good place to buy as it's not just dealers on there, some sellers don't have a clue, what did you pay? (if that isn't intrusion)

 

40 pounds with free shipping which I myself think is a bargain... and here's the lock! Probably replaced once? Since there's repair of veneer near it

 

At first glance I thought it's French but then I saw what you had written, yup it's had the lock replaced. As a box collector I always want to see the lock, I don't know why but people always want to lock antique boxes, big mistake, they lock and don't open. This can happen for a few reasons, 1) the lock is old and the spring doesn't return fully, 2) the lock fails 3) the key supplied isn't the right one, the lock locks but the key won't open the box. I have a big bunch of antique keys I bought years ago, maybe 100 small box keys, these I have used for around 70% of the boxes I have but I never lock them when the lid is closed, of course having a key that turns the lock (and looks right) increases the value if I ever come to sell. Your lock is French on a English box, I don't know if you got a key with it? but unless you want to go to the hassle of finding a dona box and getting the lock from that I would just leave it. Coromandel wood was a English thing, so much so they made the wood almost extinct, your box is an early one by the time the 1890's came round the price for Coromandel was very high indeed. £40 isn't a bad price at all, I wouldn't want to tell you what to buy because art is in the eye of the beholder but antique boxes are about the longest lived antique you can buy, boxes can be used to hold anything, they are small and well made, hard to destroy and as a result they are plentiful. Rarely made boxes are what collectors are looking for, these boxes were expensive and took a long time to make, often out of expensive materials with a lot of skill and techniques that are lost to history (can't be reproduced). Your Coromandel box has this because the wood isn't available anymore. I collect art boxes mainly, they can be carved, inlaid, overlaid, set with fine paintings ect but you really do have to know your stuff, there are many that look to same'ish but are worthless compared to the real thing.

 

Thank you! No, it doesn't come with a key. I guess the lock is French too, as I only see round holes on French boxes, but the mark on hinges suggesting the box itself is English? Wonder what happened, the owner travelled to france and had the lock replaced?

Coromandel doesn't come often on various sites compared to mahogany or rosewood (but rosewood is extinct and protected, right?), that's all I know about its rarity haha. But it's pretty by its own right, that's why I always want one.

Since you have so many spare keys, have you try on boxes that don't come with original key? Any chance it would make a random match? But I won't play with the key even if I had one, I fear I would break it!

 

Yes your box is English,only the lock is French, Coromandel (ebony family) is extinct, rosewood is still used (only in India and not exported) I suspect the lock was recently addressed as it looks like hard wax was used to fill the holes.

Most boxes don't come with keys either original or working replacements, so the only way is finding a key that fits. There is normally a rod inside the lock that the key revolves round when you turn the key, you first need a key that has the same sized hole that fits the rod secondly the key wards need to also fit inside the key hole, 3rd the key needs to turn the tumbler in both directions, always try the key with a open lid.
Nearly all my boxes have replacement keys that I have replaced, I find them by buying large batches of antique keys and trying them, never force a lock, it should turn easily.
I think I was lucky to find such a large batch of antique keys with so many box keys in the batch, from memory I think the batch cost around £60 with 250 keys around 100 being small enough for boxes.

 

BTW a working lock (on a good box) can add £20-30 to the sale price.

 

Got it when I was looking for antique boxes in store the store owner will always tell me where to find locksmith to get a new fitted key lol