Featured William & Mary Spice Box

Yeah,I hear you!UNPACKING foam peanuts ain't exactly a bowl of cherries either!

 

I have lots of descriptive words for packing peanuts. I'll let you fill in your own. But we want to see that box once you get the black uck off of 'er.

 

OK, it's waiting it's turn at the moment. Yes, the victorians & that black finish look just isn't doing much for me, completely covers up the wood!

 

Looking at the prices you give, it's terrifying for me, luckily here boxes are at prices we can buy them, one of my wife's sewing box.
With a secret compartment you can open with a push on a part of the marquetry.

Link put again, don't know why it doesn’t appear at the first time.

 

Well, it's a little misleading, those are rare outstanding examples in very good condition, the best of the best kind of thing. Competition for those sort of pieces is very strong in USA and, it almost doesn't matter what the rest of the market is doing.
Link to wife sewing box didn't work for me.

 

Nor me.

 

The link comes up as about: blank.

 

I don't know the date for your second piece James, but it's a lot of money for an european collector, certainly due to the fact that they are more pieces surviving here than in US.

 

Well, the thing is, the population of USA in 1690 was only 200,000 people, in 1776, 2.5 million so there were A LOT less people and furniture objects all the way round the corner than say Europe at that time.
Given that our population is 330 million now, outstanding examples from that earlier time are naturally going to sell for big bucks. Lesser examples obviously sell more reasonably. Ruth's box for example sold for $8000. USD, but it had condition issues, bottom was replaced, lock was missing, lid was cracked, paint was not original, etc. Looking back, Ruth was fairly priced at 8k.

 

1750-1770, mid 18th century, that box at Skinner sold for 106k, sounds like a lot and it is but, where are you going to get another American example of that quality in that time period in that condition?

 

the link worked for me, that is a beautiful box Lecollectionneur

 

Yes, works now! Very nice box but don't think i am buying a sewing box anytime soon.

 

The bottom line in all this is, is any painting worth 450 million USD? I don't know but, Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece Salvator Mundi achieves $450,312,500 at auction a couple years ago at Christie's. Considering that, 106k for that spice box was a bargain!

 

lol James

 

Here you're not speaking about the right value of a work of art, just of the amount of ego between two or more persons, looking the two good reports about Van Meegeren affair I've seen last month, since hudreds of years they were always possibilities when you're really rich to expose that to the common people, in Europe we have Pinault and Arnault which are good examples of that.

 

I've seen reports of some of those sales before, where the buyer just wanted to "win" no matter what. Auction houses and sellers love those buyers, as long as they pay up!

 

That's clear when I'm the seller this is always a good thing, but it makes prices which cannot be taken as reference, just indicative of a past moment.

 

Lecollectionneur‘s link to his wife’s sewing box worked for me.......it’s lovely!!!

 

As sewing/needle work is a big part of the preserved cultural aspect of a society, especially before/without painting or photography, the tools used are made like others parts of the day life, here it's made like a dresser from Swiss region Berne by a characteristic Louis XV "school" of design.