old redipe box with different kind of art?

[paul biolsi]

Hi everyone. 

 

Need some help here obviously.  Got this box.  It measures 5-1/2 inches as a cube.  Has no markings as from an artist or manufacturer.  Has some great art on top.  Bird looks to be inlaid and the branches seem to be lightly carved and stained.  Very ornate.  Each corner has a brass piece over it.  Two brass handles on the sides.  The front has a hlf mortise lock.  The key is the kind with a hole in the middle.  The hook that would close the top is still on and in good condition.  The bottom is covered in leather(?), shows age and has 4 brass feet.  The two small brass hinges that hold the top are done with vey tiny screws not nails.  I'm wondering if this is a recipe box or jewelry box, or something else.  Also any idea of origins, age or manufacturer, artist?  It seems pretty well done to be a piece to just have hanging around.   Anything about this item would be great.

 

Thanks Paul   

[paul biolsi]

I've got to go with tomsantiques on this one.

[Sherry Miller]

Lol!  I kept thinking, Canadian goose??? Are we looking at the same box?  Inverted bird.  Now I get it.  Thanks, T

[Sherry Miller]

arrrgh.  I keep typing stuff then flipping back to see the photo again.  I'm popping it on here so I can see it while I ponder.

Paul, have you taken the time to look at ebay's tea caddy sales?  They're consistently selling (not just asking) in multiple $100s so Tom's suggestion of $160 is well within reason.  And it looks to me like the collectors there do not require a lot of specific poetical style description.  To ID the wood, compare the thing itself to images of wood grains from Asia.  Try cypress, on account of the color.

http://www.antique-chinese-furnitures.com/chinese-furniture-knowled...

Also, this guy says his box is Kiri and it might be yours

http://www.ebay.com/itm/F114-Japanese-wooden-tea-thing-box-CHABAKO-...

[paul biolsi]

Thank You!  You know how hard it is to get pointed in the right direction?  I've been buying storage units as a hobby with the wife for the last 5 months.  We've run into some collectibles and antiques.  I have a friend that led me to this sight.  There is so much to learn I'll be dead by th time I get a handle on it.  I really appreciate yours and everyone elses help here. 

[Sherry Miller]

I do know how hard it is to start from scratch.  Having no clue what a thing is on one hand, then, flooded with too-much-information-firehose-down-my-throat! on the other hand.  It's fun though, right?  The hunt and the discovery.  With every single item you learn a little something new about a product or history or the market and oddities of human nature.

I keep a couple of my own flaming failures around to remind me of lessons learned.  A gorgeous slag glass brass table lamp, right here on my desk.  I sold it "Antique Stained Glass Lamp. $180"  The customer brought it back to show me the "copyright 1979" molded on the bottom.  Dang!  /:)