Early, Beautifully Detailed Carved Out Slide Lid Box homemade book with the rust creeping up

with the rust creeping up toward those trusty and official looking capital white letters

I take for a Native American of the Pacific Northwest

I'm completely smitten with them

was finished with a hardened varnish or shellac and bears a great rich patina

this is just about a perfect thing

Early, Beautifully Detailed Carved Out Slide Lid Box homemade book with the rust creeping upThis is quite an old box, I believe earlyish 19th c. if not older, and quite a wonderful one I think, carved out from one piece of wood, with a great deal of effort invested in decorative carving on the long sides cross hatching on one and a more complex pattern of chip carving on the other. I love the raised pull end of the slide lid, which looks rather like a pillow at the head of a bed, with a piece of iron stretched over the top looking rather