Featured Mystery Box?

Can you take a close up photo? Through a loupe maybe? We have people who can read Russian/Cyrillic.

If you catch a crowned pike now, you will know in about 50 yrs time.

 

When I checked the other boxes out just to make sure I could throw them out when I got them I was surprised I could find 4 out of the 5 being sold for more money than I paid for the whole lot, £15 + postage

 

105 will do me, I'll be ready to go I'm afraid I can't take any pics ATM as I won the listing about 4 hours ago but when I get it I'll take pics and post them. I'm not thinking it's very valuable, I'm just shocked that any of them are worth anything, I was expecting to bin them.

 

These are better photos of the Vizagapatam box

 

This is about the best I can do

 

The Vizagapatam box is a beauty.

So the Vizagapatam box is free, the others will pay for it.

The box at the top of the photo looks interesting too. Is it wood, leather?

All I can see is Palekh on the left, so I think it is best to wait until you have them and can take your own photos of the signature/text.

 

Awww, too bad the box is in such poor condition..!! Hahahahaha!!!!!!

20 pounds........ u kiddin us......that's it ???

even the Russian is worth that......alone.....and anyone with a computer would know that ....

Raver , you da Man !!!!!

& I'm bloody impressed with your swagger !!

Great find !!!

 

Happy Birthday !!!!
u spring chicken !!!

 

Thank you for being kind and saying it's a beauty but honestly it's not the best Vizagapatam box and it has damage but at that price I couldn't say no I suspect it will still see over £100 but I'll have to wait and see how big it is and the age, damage is, it might have all the back missing, I didn't want to draw attention to it. Last week I bid on a box early, it was deep in ebay and not listed correctly nor was it in the right category, 2 mins later I'd been out bid and the box has just gone out for £140, I'm sure people looked it up because I bid on it lol

 

No I'm not being ungrateful I was very happy to see it in the wrong category along with other boxes. If I can clean it up all the better

 

Stalkers.

 

no....' followers '.......of someone who susses out the good stuff !!!!

 

Tell me about it, I'm being followed

 

means that they respect your judgement on antique boxes !!!!

 

Unfortunately, it also means getting scrutinized left and right. I can't get any deals in a local antique store for just that reason. If Ruth wants it, it must be good. But...SCORE. Ebay wins like that are few and far between nowadays.

 

I think it's a conspiracy to keep me poor

 

There's no point in me going into local antique shops, I should keep my mouth shut but I can't help but tell them what they have. I started out alright, I bought a sealed wine bottle for £16 and sold it for £450 (I know they should know better) but I now feel guilty, at least with ebay I don't have to see their face lol

 

I get into trouble for opening my mouth about anything at all. The owner was talking guitars with another customer, not sales talk or even close, and mentioned a friend with a houseful. I said I"d be in trouble walking in there because I'd want to hear them all. (totally true, btw) After the customer left I was criticized for opening my mouth.

 

I took a leaf out of your book and bought the following Sadeli box on eBay to try out my skills on restoring. I lightly sanded it down to remove the varnish and wax coating that had been applied and generally cleaned it up. It’s a fairly simple box compared to some of yours but it was a useful learning exercise and I don’t think it was a bad investment for £10.00

 

Fantastic job this type, where the Sadeli doesn't cover the whole box, is a great place to start as there is a lot of wood holding the pieces in place. When the whole box is covered it then gets a little more tricky, 1) because they are often earlier in date and 2) because time isn't kind to sadeli, the glue fails between the wood and the micro mosaics and it's only the glue between each micro mosaics holding it on, if you start sanding sometimes you can find large chunks falling off. But I will say once restored these boxes are just fantastic works of art, soon you will be restoring missing micro mosaics, yes it is possible. When I was younger and my hands were less shaky and my eyes were better I used to restore the micro mosaics on Sadeli, sometimes gluing in each piece but far more often being able to remove strips of the pattern off a donor box and gluing them in. Just a few days ago I bought a ruined Khatam early 19th c box only because the micro mosaics are a exact match for my large Khatam fall front cabinet, (I don't know if you know but Khatam is where Sadeli came from, it went from Persia to India, some of the early Khatam is just amazing but SO expensive. Here is a link to my Khatam post https://www.antiquers.com/threads/l...y-khatam-kari-what-to-look-for-and-why.53658/