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This case was made by La Secla, Fried, & Co. in Newark, N.J. I couldn't get a very good picture of the mark, but it says sterling, LF in a hexagon, and 11. Rainwater puts the company in business in the 1910s, out of business by 1922. By then the telephone was starting to take over some of the function of visits and visiting cards. I like way the fractal-like floral tessellation contrasts with the very plain rounded rectangular form here. I think it has a pleasing, dizzying-yet-contained geometry. This is a heavy case and it has a little cabochon garnet set in rose gold as a knob to open the lid; I imagine it must have been expensive when new.
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