Featured Info on Antique Jewelry Box / Sailor’s Ditty Box?

Hi,
I’m looking for any information that the members here can offer about this box - its approximate age, country of origin, any other info…. (My guess, so far, is that it's English and dates from the mid to late 1800s.) Any antique parquetry box lovers here?

The box is about 13 ¼ inches long by 8¼ inches wide and 7¾ inches high.
The primary wood looks like mahogany to me.
There's a rectangular impression on the lining of the lid where there must have been a small mirror.

Searching Google Images for Antique Inlay Jewelry Box I found a couple of boxes of very similar size and overall design (on Etsy and Ebay) that were labeled as Sailors' Ditty Boxes, circa 1860. Does that sound right?

I'm wondering if the interiors of old sailors' ditty boxes were sometimes revamped to serve as women's jewelry boxes...?

I'm a little thrown by the lock - which takes a flat key. (I would have expected a slot for a barrel key.) When did flat keys come into use? (I suppose the lock / tumbler could be a replacement....?)

I bought this on eBay recently, with the idea that I would flip it, but I don't think I can let it go.

Thanks in advance for any information!

 

Nice box but calling it a sailor's ditty box is a big stretch. Reminds me a bit of Tunbridge ware. The flat key lock, while atypical, is not inconsistent with a late 19th century date.

 

lovely box......

 

From the outside Id have thought a tea caddy . I wonder if its a converted one ?

 

Interesting idea

 

Much too nice for a sailor's ditty box, I should think! Yours is the work of a professional, not a sailor killing time.
I doubt that it was ever a tea caddy and believe the interior may be original.
Beautiful box!

 

Thanks. Guess I'll have to let go of the idea of the sailor's ditty box - though it was such a fun idea. It seems that there's some misinformation available out there on the internet. (Who would've guessed?)

 

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/304134887903

 

Nice mystery, I'm a box collector and for my own knowledge, and yours, I'm trying to work out where and when your box was made. There are a number of differences between your box and what I'd expect from a late 19th c box, 1) the flat key lock 2) it looks like the finish has been aged, ie it's dirty in the places I'd expect to see lighter patches and it's not consistent with old boxes I've seen (100'000's) An example is it's lighter on the back in the middle where you would expect it to be rarely touched ect. When dating a box hinges and locks play a big part of that, it's easy to make a box in the style but far harder to get old hardware. I think it wasn't made to deceive but I think the box was made in the style of the late 19th c but made in the 1930's, the velvet color is again right for the 19th c and only going by the lock, hinges, and finish I would say 1930's continental and not the UK. Of course I could be wrong about this all, it could have been in a fire and the finish was partly cleaned, the lock might have been replaced (but I see no evidence of that) it could be a rarity I've never seen before and I'm happy to be proved wrong, I don't think the late manufacture has made any difference to the skill of construction, it's still a lovely box.

 

An example is it's lighter on the back in the middle where you would expect it to be rarely touched ect.

is it possible that at some point .... someone tried cleaning the grime off ..in the areas where the design is present....leaving the undecorated areas untouched..?

 

Thanks. There IS some (seemingly random) patchiness of light and dark on the surface of the back and also a bit on the front. The areas also alternate between a slightly matte and slightly more semi-gloss surface. I'll take a few photographs at an oblique angle in the daylight tomorrow and will post them.

I can't imagine someone treating the surface that way by design. I've assumed that at some point somebody made a start at cleaning it and then gave it up.

 

that curved scratch below the hinge is interesting....

 

Yes. I've wondered how that happened.

 

it's deep too !!

 

Looks like the hinge on the scratched side had lost all it's screws and when opened slid off the box scratched the back

 

"I've assumed that at some point somebody made a start at cleaning it and then gave it up" That would explain the light and dark places where they shouldn't be. It's only the lock (flat key) that's a mystery now but that could be easily explained by me never encountering one on a late 19th c box, as I say I'm happy to be wrong.

 

wouldn't that angle rip the hinges off the other side ???

 

dear Sir...could we please see pics of the inside hinges?

 

Dear sir. Will do. Thanks.