Box

Unknown

1660–1700 · Oak, white pine · The American Wing

The most common small storage unit in the seventeenth century was the rectangular box with a hinged lid. Boxes provided a place to keep valuables, documents, writing implements, books, and small articles of apparel. Except for one rare example decorated with applied moldings, these boxes are carved utilizing a vocabulary of stylized plant forms and simple geometric shapes. The boxes are all of simple five-board nailed construction and have a deep association with America’s so-called "Pilgrim Century." They were avidly sought after by the earliest collectors of seventeenth-century American oak furniture, hence their acquisition by the museum in 1910 as part of the foundation for the museum’s collection of early American furniture.

Artist

Unknown

Date

1660–1700

Medium

Oak, white pine

Culture

American

Department

The American Wing

Credit line

Gift of Mrs. Russell Sage, 1909