jewellery box

[hdlc]

Hi,
I bought this item at a fete. I was wondering if anybody knew anything about it and how much it might be worth. Thank you.

[KC]

Welcome!

#1  Are you in England/Australia/France area?  The term fete is used there quite often!

#2  Does the box have any smell to it.  (I have seen vintage tobacco "smoking" items similar to this.) 

Very intriguing looking.....

[fancypants]

Nice box , hdlc .

Perhaps a 1800's tea caddy ?

[KC]

Oops, forgot to put that as well....thanks fancy!!!!

[hdlc]

I am in Australia. The box does not have any smell.

[sapphire]

I was thinking the same as fancypants, a tea caddy, but noticed the lock on the interior box.  Could this possibly be a jewelry box that would also hold head adornments (height)?  Whatever it is, I LOVE the look!

[KC]

When I first glanced at the picture I thought it was a mirror on the inside top that was reflecting the bottom of the box and after pondering realized it wasn't but that the lid is domed of sorts.

Upon closer inspection are there any wear marks at all on the inside?
On the bottom?

[fancypants]

Some further reflections on this box -

Handle indicates it's something to be carried .

I'm a little stumped with this cherry-motif (It looks like cherries to me) pyramid-lidded box .

It does seem large enough to contain a tea pot .... perhaps there was a liner when it was new (?) .
I'm not seeing much in the line of wear-patterns inside of the box , though .

As many here know , early tea-drinking in 'western' society was limited & considered medicinal .
Often , tea caddies were locking units , since the prices for tea & the opinion that it was medicine would often warrant some security/precautions (early-days child-proofing??) .

It wasn't all that unusual for Ma or Pa to have a bit of a 'tincture' added to/included with their tea (opium , etc.) .

[waywardangler]

This looks fairly large.  What are the dimensions...width, height, length?  I kind of agree with sapphire that this is for a hat and the box is for some adornment piece, strap, collar, braided cord, etc.  If this is sitting on the floor and the boards are about 3", this looks like it is about 12" wide in front.  With the handle on top, I am going with a hat box.

[CuriousCollector]

What an interesting find!  Wish I knew what it was.  The motif on the lid looks southeast Asian to me -- Thai or Sri Lankan?  My first impression was that it looked like the eight-armed Siva, before I looked closer. 

[KC]

I'm leaning more to the tea/tincture variant.  Agree with the historical nature that fancy so aptly explained.

[talesofthesevenseas]

Interesting and lovely! The tea caddies I've seen were deeper- the pyramid top makes me wonder if it held some type of decanter? Also the decorative metalwork on the front- It looks almost Indonesian to me, but I can't quite say why. Is there much wear inside the box?