Object: Oval Painted Bride’s or Ribbon Box
Dimensions: Length 12″ Width 7″ Height 4″
Maker: Unknown.
Location: Probably Continental Europe
Date: circa 1830
Commentary: This painted box with its interlaced and continuous floral pattern and white dots is related to a larger group of highly decorated boxes bearing traditional motifs. The form seems to have originated in Europe and came to America with immigrating artisans. A box of similar size, construction and surface decoration (#23) is described in The Pennsylvania German Collection, Beatrice Garvan’s catalogue of the holdings of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, as a ribbon box of bentwood construction. A rectangular box (undated), in the collection of Henry Kauffman and illustrated in his Pennsylvania Dutch American Folk Art, bears a very similar floral pattern. Winterthur also holds a number of related examples.
The loops of bentwood are secured by woven stripes of willow with the bottom and top secured by sprig nails. The underside of the top has an incised geometric floral pattern that appears to have been a practice surface.
Condition: The box is in excellent condition and the paint remains bright and vibrant. There is some fading to a serpentine band of red/orange around the upper edge which may be the result of wear from removal and replacement of the box’s top. Two areas of the top show a loss of wood and paint from old splintering.
Price: Sold
