Featured Painted oval bent-wood box (many pictures)

I picked this box up last week. It measures roughly 8" X 4¾" X 3" (20cm X 12cm X 7.5cm). It reminded me of a Shaker box but lacked the lovely nailed, tapered swallow-tail ... instead the sides are "tied" together with what appears to be a thin lace made of wood. The bottom and top are nailed to the sides (many nails are missing).

I've been trying to find other similar boxes, and it most resembles what is called a bride's box from Germany (maybe other countries too, I'm not clear on that) ... though, this is not as fancy as most of the bride's boxes that I've seen yet. I was wondering if this could possibly be something from the PA Dutch community?

Between the initials and the date, is a word that looks like "Åhr" ... which Google refuses to translate nicely for me ... it either gives me back the same word, when I input with a regular "A" ... or gives me back a proper surname when I use the fancy A with a dot on top.

I don't know if the date painted on the box, 1796, means anything ... I'm skeptical about a wood box hanging around for over 200 years and being in this (relatively) nice shape.

Does anyone know what this is or what Åhr means?


one side

other side

showing how thick the painted designs are

nails

inside top and bottom

wood lacing close-up

underside of box

 

We have several of these from PA. They are painted in the German style with distelfinks. They usually were given at births, christenings, marriages, etc.
Patd

 

åhr is Swedish for year, also spelled år.

 

Thank you, Patd. May I ask if yours are old boxes, or are these still being made?

 

Thank you, anund! ... now why couldn't Google do that?

 

Ahr could also be German dialect for Jahr, which is German for year. Same meaning.

 

Ans for 'years' in French.

 

Or Norsk for that matter.
.

 

År is Norwegian, but I think we've digressed a bit here...

It's tricky to figure out if old or newer, but it is certainly appealing!

There's no oxidation of the inside, although that may signify nothing. The nails -- are they period nails? Hmmm...

 

Quirky, ours are older ( the most recent painted in 1960.) Yours looks like a nice, well constructed antique box. Could be European but keep in mind that there were/are large groups of immigrants keeping their traditions alive here.
Patd

 

View attachment 86710 View attachment 86711 View attachment 86712 View attachment 86713 View attachment 86714 View attachment 86714 Hi Quirky.....your box looks original to me.....can't say it was made in 1796 however.

This type of box is known as a Tine (teena).

Here is mine.....a different style but construction similar.

Notice the inside color.......still very light.

The bottom of mine says Memories from Sweden.

It's possible that yours is Norwegian.

View attachment 86710 View attachment 86711 View attachment 86711 View attachment 86713

 

Oh Boy....I've really screwed up the attachments,

I tried to only eliminate one double, and change size of one, and somehow I got the above.

I'm uncertain as to how to make them appear as I intended.

I did try to delete the whole post to start over again, but didn't see an option to do that.

I'm thinking I deserve the "dumb Swede" title.....

 

Don't even bother to click on the links....it says Board error!

 

Thank you Ghopper and anund (again) ... So, at least the language has been narrowed down to a few possibilities in the same general, but broad, region.

 

Thank you KentW, I can try to take better photographs of more of the nails. Do you think that would help? I don't know if I could tell a really old nail from a kind-of-old one ... especially after it's been hammered on.

 

Yes, this is true - the US was still pretty young around 1796 (should that date actually refer to the box), with many recently migrated folks from Germany and that region, right? Thanks again

 

Thank you, judy! Another term to help me in my search. Can't wait to see yours

 

too late you're building suspense

 

Thanks, KoT ... but I don't see an "n" or "s" on the box.

 

Hi Quirky Girl......I wasn't sure if I should repost.....but since you seem interested to see my box, I shall attempt to do so again tomorrow.

I am at the shop, on my laptop, and they are stored on my pc.

If anyone knows how to produce the images by the Error links, please feel free to do so. It would be appreciated.