Unlock the Mystery of This Elegant Antique – Find Out What It Is!
August 31, 2024
source: PBS
The particular piece of furniture is an antique wooden chest and it is popularly known as a knife box. These beautiful and sometimes complex shaped containers have been used in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries for the purpose of storage and display of cutlery with a special emphasis on knives as these items were considered precious possessions in a home.
Cutlery boxes were usually located on sideboards in dining rooms and since these boxes were not only functional but also ornamental, they reflected the owner’s status and good taste. On the top of the box there were two rows of holes and slots which were intended to provide the knife with a vertical position so that the blades stayed sharp and were easily accessible.
Cutlery boxes where usually very well made and the design of the boxes could be very elaborate with the use of inlays, veneers and even marquetry. The hinged lid is sometimes equipped with a lock for ensuring the safety of the contents that is stored in it whereas the interior part of the box may be covered with felt or any other soft material to avoid scratches on the knives.
On this particular Cutlery box the front part of the lid has a decorative emblem or a shield that might have represented the family crest or the maker’s initials. The overall design of the box has rounded corners and a star inlay at the middle of the lid and this depicts the kind of design that was popular in that period.
