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Old spice box? What do I have here?

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Author	Topic: Old spice box? What do I have here?
OWK Posts: 69 Registered: Apr 2005	posted 07-25-2007 04:59 PM [26-1456] Hello all, I have been a member for some time. I collect primarily Baltimore coin, but also some more obscure Southern Makers as well. I generally lurk (there's a lot of knowledge to be gained simply by reading), but have also posted a little. This brings me to the reason for this post. I recently acquired a silver spice box (or perhaps a small caddy). It is a primitive but beautiful piece. It was purchased from a Florida estate (of transplanted Massachusetts residents). The piece is painstakingly hand-chased repousse. The repousse panels are repeated around the circumference, but it is clear that it was all spaced and chased by hand. Every bit of the piece appears to be hand-hammered, and the bottom appears to be as well. The box isn't that big. (about 4 and 1/2 inches high, and about 2 and 1/2 inches in diameter). It contains only one mark (a simple MG in caps on the bottom). While the mark appears to be a simple engraving, dimpling on the inside bottom suggest to me that it is a punch (albeit a crude one). This brings me to my questions... Can anyone help me date the piece by it's appearance and construction? Or perhaps help with an origin and maker? This piece just exudes "old" to me.. and the more I handle it, the more I fall in love with it... Thanks in advance for any info you might provide. IP: Logged
ozfred Posts: 87 Registered: Sep 2002	posted 07-25-2007 05:35 PM The box is from either Indonesia or Malaysia as silversmiths in both countries use that type of decoration. It was probably a cigarette container that dates from the last century by an unknown maker. IP: Logged
OWK Posts: 69 Registered: Apr 2005	posted 07-25-2007 05:39 PM My initial thoughts were similar (I was thinking Siam).. but the marks suggested otherwise to me. IP: Logged
OWK Posts: 69 Registered: Apr 2005	posted 07-25-2007 05:42 PM I've also seen some very early American boxes with similar repousse work. IP: Logged
DB Posts: 252 Registered: May 2006	posted 07-25-2007 07:05 PM No, I think this box has Batavia written all over it - there is a book by S.M.Voskuil-Gronewegen, J.H.J. Leeuwrik, Titus M. Eliens: Zilver uit de tijd van de Verenigde Oestindische Compagnie, Gemeentemuseum Den Haag (apparently no year)[Silver -Dutch Eastindian Company] showing many items with similar chasing, monogrammed master marks - one, two or three letters were common, I checked - no MG listed. IP: Logged
Kimo Posts: 1627 Registered: Mar 2003	posted 07-26-2007 11:25 AM I don't know for sure, but just by its style I agree that it looks like 1900's Asia. DB's thoughts that it is the first half of the 1900s from the Netherlands East Indies seem like good guesses to me. It does not look American to me, nor does it appear to my eye from the photos to have great age. My parents spent a number of years living in several different countries in southeast Asia in the 1940s and 1950s and they had many small items that were of this general style that they picked up there. They had several small round canisters of about the size and shape of this one lying around the house that were cigarette holders. One or two of them, I recall, even had thin wood liners to keep the cigarettes fresh. IP: Logged
DB Posts: 252 Registered: May 2006	posted 07-26-2007 11:37 AM Kimo, this is just it - styles change so little that a good dating is hard to do - especially from a photograph. Price paid is usually a good indication..... IP: Logged
OWK Posts: 69 Registered: Apr 2005	posted 07-26-2007 07:33 PM Thanks all, for taking the time to consider this piece. I'll lean toward the southeast Asian origin, and leave the file open on this one. best regards IP: Logged

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