Onnaing Boxes

Designed to appear as a stack of books, this box is the perfect place to store your treasures. The hinged box is made of wood, and the books are trimmed in gold paint. This piece we...

Handsome cork and leather tobacco jar from London. Beautiful patina to the cork and leather. Jar can be used as a tobacco, weed, or stash jar. Cork is a clas...

A charming and finely detailed 19th-century Black Forest–style hand-carved tobacco jar. Entirely carved from wood and executed with remarkable depth and texture. A rare large size to...

The box with scenes of lilliputian figures

A gorgeous antique French Onnaing majolica pumpkin cachepot / jardiniere / planter, circa 1880. Maker's mark on reverse. This fine jardiniere is a nice large size decorated with vibr...

Little wood box with openwork panels, made circa 1900 in the Art Nouveau period. A little piece of wood is missing on the back side. A. M. initial are on the top. Good antique condit...

An exceptional, fine and impressive antique Victorian English sterling silver tobacco box; an addition to our smoking related silverware collection. This exceptional antique Victorian sterling silver tobacco box has a plain oval rounded form. The underside of this box is embellished with a bright cut engraved stemmed rose, floral and foliate design; this indicates the high quality of the piece, as typically the underside would remain unembellished. The upper portion of this antique silver tobacco box...

Rare GUCCI heart-shaped pink Richard Ginori decorative porcelain box with the Mystic Cat print on the lid and black trim / made in Italy A printed detail at the interior adds a speci...

Offered is a stunning Sheffield silver keepsake box dating to 1900, with associated hallmark. This small box includes a clean interior and rounded corners. The box is free of names or initials, but would have been used to house keepsakes such as jewelry or cufflinks. A well maintained, elegant piece, this antique silver box is an excellent addition to any silver collection. Trinket or keepsake boxes have taken on many forms since their first conception in ancient times. However their purpose remains the same; to store jewelry and other items precious to the owner. Originally, these boxes were used specifically for jewelry. These were in common use as early as 5000 BC in Ancient Egypt, when the majority of Egyptians, both male and female, wore jewelry. Boxes were used to keep these gemstone encrusted items safe. In Ancient Rome, jewelry was a status symbol. Rings and brooches were utilized to represent ones status in society. Again, boxes were needed for security and storage purposes. Finding early examples of these are quite rare. Victorian and Edwardian examples of trinket boxes are far more common. This is because owning jewellery was a luxury until the Victorian era- let alone possessing so much a box was needed to store it all. Fine jewelry and other items became available to the masses after the industrial revolution due to the reduction in production costs. This led to a demand for trinket boxes, which were much smaller than jewelry boxes and therefore better suited to the needs of the middle class who did not yet possess an abundance of jewelry. In Victorian households, collectables and other items of interested were also stashed inside these boxes. This is why they are known as trinket or keepsake boxes, rather than just jewelry boxes, although of course jewelry was also stored in them. Trinket boxes were produced in large numbers around this time. Many were lined with colored plush or velvet or rich wood. More elaborate designs had interior divisions and trays for rings and other pieces of jewellery. It was also common to see trinket boxes so small that they could only contain one item, such as a single ring. Ornate exteriors were created to reflect the value of the trinket boxes contents. The Edwardian era saw the introduction of new styles of trinket box. These included small circular or oblong boxes...

19th century hand turned treen tobacco box made from walnut. The lid is expertly turned and is topped with a finial over a fabulous hand turned base. The walnut is a handsome color...

19th century blue opaline glass jar from France with hand painted floral decorations on lid and base.

This Tunbridge box still bank is indigenous to the Tunbridge ware cottage industries of the town of Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England in the 18th and 19th c...