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Medieval Jewelry Boxes

MEDIEVAL STYLE

The Middle Ages in Europe followed the end of the Roman Empire, and in this time of change, which preceded the Renaissance, furniture was simple and utilitarian, with most homes having only the necessities like chests and benches. Much of medieval furniture, which was often made in oak or walnut, was built for the elite, particularly the emerging merchant class who owned multiple homes.

Life for many in the medieval era was unstable, and furniture was designed to be functional and portable. Peasants worked the fields for affluent landowners and didn’t have access to literature in the way that nobles and people of the church did (women less so than men). The furniture in their modest dwellings was typically limited to cookware and a handful of stools. Foldable chairs, while uncommon in homes of the early Middle Ages and emblematic of wealth, like all other furnishings of the time, allowed for easy transportation of a household. Trestle tables with detachable legs and collapsible beds were designed to be simply moved from place to place.

Medieval blanket chests were among the most important furniture objects and could further serve as tables or even beds. Some ancient traditions were carried forward to build this sturdy furniture, such as turnery. Although the furniture was minimally designed, embellishments like carvings added elegance to the heavy wood pieces. These details sometimes reflected trends in religious art like rose windows.

By the later Middle Ages, storage pieces like chests of drawers were often adorned with high relief carvings, such as geometric and floral motifs. By the 14th and 15th centuries, design had developed to include more involved pieces like cupboards and desks, while benches frequently doubled as chests with hinged seats. Beds also changed in this era from basic boards to four-post designs with large drapes to keep the sleeper warm. These beds and other medieval bedroom furniture were significant status symbols, passed down through families and used as places to conduct business and receive visitors.

Surviving examples of medieval furniture are very rare, yet its distinctive aesthetics influenced later styles like William and Mary and Arts and Crafts.

Find a collection of medieval seating, garden elements, decorative objects and other furniture on 1stDibs.

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Style: Medieval
Chest, Leather, Wrought Iron, Textile, Wood, Spain, circa 1500
Located in Madrid, ES
Rectangular body casket with semicircular lid made of carved wood and covered with a worked leather that has been reinforced with a series of forged iron fittings, material in which ...
Category

16th Century Spanish Antique Medieval Jewelry Boxes

Materials

Wrought Iron, Other

19th Century French Gothic Brass & Copper Jewelry Box with Repousse Leaf Motifs
Located in Dallas, TX
This antique patinated gilt casket was created in France, circa 1890. Built with brass and copper, the miniature trunk-shaped box with bombe top, stands on...
Category

Late 19th Century French Antique Medieval Jewelry Boxes

Materials

Brass, Copper

French Gothic Style Jewelry Box or Chest with Bronze Inlay & Leather
Located in Plainview, NY
An exquisite French Gothic style jewelry box or small chest, a testament to the timeless allure of craftsmanship. Adorned with intricate brass inlay ...
Category

20th Century Medieval Jewelry Boxes

Materials

Stone, Bronze

Very Rare Casket Minnekästchen or Box, Germany or Italy, 15th Century
Located in Beuzevillette, FR
Wooden coffret, call minnekästchen, engraved with a dog, a hare and foliage with polychromy remains. During the Middle Age, the hare is a symbol of fertility, joy and represents the Christ...
Category

15th Century and Earlier European Antique Medieval Jewelry Boxes

Materials

Iron

19th Century French Gothic Bronze Doré Jewelry Box with Repousse Cherub Motifs
Located in Dallas, TX
This antique gilt bronze casket was created in France, circa 1870. The miniature trunk-shaped box with bombe top, stands on gargoyle figure feet, and is embellished with intricate repousse cherub and scrolled decor on all four sides. The jewelry box is upholstered with the original inside luxurious red velvet. The small safe...
Category

Late 19th Century French Antique Medieval Jewelry Boxes

Materials

Bronze

Rare and Beautiful 16th Century Siena Box
Located in Madrid, ES
Rare and Beautiful 16th century Siena box 13cm x 15.5cm x 27cm Paper mache box gilt and lacquered in blue and red. Good condition for the age.
Category

16th Century Italian Antique Medieval Jewelry Boxes

Materials

Wood

Northern Italy Box Set with 16th Century Floral Motifs
Located in Madrid, ES
Northern Italy box set with 16th century Floral Motifs 18.5x30x16cm Casket in carved and gilded wood with floral motifs. Sealing wax stamp inside. Vintag...
Category

16th Century Italian Antique Medieval Jewelry Boxes

Materials

Wood

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19th Century French Bronze Mounted Box
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Fine doré bronze mounts. Hand painted scene under glass. This box is signed by maker on the lock.
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19th Century French Antique Medieval Jewelry Boxes

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Bronze

19th Century French Bronze Mounted Box
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Walnut veneered. Footed. Silk-lined. Key is included.
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19th Century French Antique Medieval Jewelry Boxes

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Bronze

19th Century French Bronze Mounted Box
19th Century French Bronze Mounted Box
H 4 in W 9.75 in D 3.75 in
English Octagonal Rosewood with Boxwood Line Inlay Jewelry Box
Located in Free Union, VA
A slim and elegant box of highly figured rosewood divided into multiple panels, each bordered with narrow boxwood string inlay. The box rests on small wooden ball feet in faux painte...
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Early 19th Century English Antique Medieval Jewelry Boxes

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Rosewood

Vintage Deed Box, English, Art Deco, Iron, Document, Deposit, Chest, circa 1930
Located in Hele, Devon, GB
This is a vintage deed box. An English, Art Deco iron document or deposit chest, dating to the early 20th century, circa 1930. Displays a desirable age...
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Early 20th Century English Medieval Jewelry Boxes

Materials

Bronze, Iron

18th Century Mexican Chest from New Spain
Located in Marbella, ES
Mexican chest. New Spain, 18th century. In polychrome wood. Slight paint losses on the lid. Measurements: 7 x 16 x 6.5 cm. Wooden chest from the vicerega...
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Mid-18th Century Mexican Antique Medieval Jewelry Boxes

Materials

Wood

18th Century Mexican Chest from New Spain
18th Century Mexican Chest from New Spain
H 2.56 in W 6.3 in D 2.76 in
Fantastic 19th Century French Dore Bronze Mounted Blue Opaline Crystal Box
Located in New York, NY
A Fantastic 19th Century French Louis XVI Style Dore Bronze Mounted Blue Opaline Crystal Box. The box is composed of two sections of French opaline crystal which are mounted to a fa...
Category

1890s French Antique Medieval Jewelry Boxes

Materials

Crystal, Bronze

Decorative and Jewelry Box in Wood with Geometrical Inlays France 1970
Located in Auribeau sur Siagne, FR
This box is a jewelry box or a decorative box. It was made in the 1970s, in France. Its lid is made of a checkerboard rectangle in wood. It is brown in color.
Category

1970s French Vintage Medieval Jewelry Boxes

Materials

Wood

Brutalist Hammered Brass Box or Jewelry Casket
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Lidded Brutalist Hand Made box in hammered brass with interesting floral details. Catches light beautifully - a complement to any surface. Can be used as a jewelry box, 420 stash box...
Category

20th Century Medieval Jewelry Boxes

Materials

Brass

16th-Century Indo-Portuguese Colonial Mother-of-pearl Gujarat Casket
Located in Amsterdam, NL
An exceptional Indo-Portuguese colonial mother-of-pearl veneered casket with silver mounts India, Gujarat, 2nd half of the 16th century, the silver mounts Goa or probably Lisbon Measures: H. 16 x W. 24.6 x D. 16.1 cm An exceptional Gujarati casket with a rectangular box and truncated pyramidal lid (with slopes on each side and a flat top) made from exotic wood, probably teak (Tectona grandis), covered with a mother-of-pearl mosaic. The tesserae, cut from the shell of the green turban sea snail (Turbo marmoratus, a marine gastropod) in the shape of fish scales, are pinned to the wooden structure with silver ball-headed nails. The casket is set on bracket feet on the corners. The masterfully engraved decoration of the silver mounts follows the most refined and erudite Mannerist repertoire of rinceaux and ferroneries dating from the mid-16th century. The high quality and refinement of the silver mounts and, likewise, the silver nails that replaced the original brass pins used to hold the mother-of-pearl tesserae in place indicate the work of a silversmith probably working in Lisbon in the second half of the 16th century. The Indian origin of this production, namely from Cambay (Khambhat) and Surat in the present state of Gujarat in north India, is, as for the last three decades, consensual and fully demonstrated, not only by documentary and literary evidence - such as descriptions, travelogues and contemporary archival documentation - but also by the survival in situ of 16th-century wooden structures covered in mother-of-pearl tesserae. A fine example is a canopy decorating the tomb (dargah) of the Sufi saint, Sheik Salim Chisti (1478-1572) in Fatehpur Sikri in Agra district in the state of Uttar Pradesh, north India. This is an artistic production, geometric in character and Islamic in nature, where usually the mother-of-pearl tesserae form complex designs of fish scales or, similar to the dishes also made using the same technique, with the thin brass sheets and pins, stylized lotus flowers. The truncated pyramidal shape corresponds, like their contemporary tortoiseshell counterparts also made in Gujarat, to a piece of furniture used in the Indian subcontinent within the Islamic world prior to the arrival of the first Portuguese. This shape, in fact, is very old and peculiar to East-Asian caskets, chests or boxes used to contain and protect Buddhist texts, the sutras. A similar chest is the famous and large reliquary chest from Lisbon cathedral that once contained the relics of the city's patron saint, Saint Vincent. Both match in shape, having the same kind of socle or pedestal and bracket feet, and in their engraved silver mountings, featuring the same type of refined, erudite decoration. Their differences lie in the silver borders that frame the entire length of the edges of the chest (both the box and the lid), pinned with silver nails, and on the lock plate, shaped like a coat of arms in the Lisbon example. Given the exceptional dimensions of the reliquary casket...
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16th Century Indian Antique Medieval Jewelry Boxes

Materials

Silver

Midcentury Bone Inlaid Chest Box or Jewelry Casket
Located in Plainview, NY
Midcentury bone inlaid chest box or jewelry casket mesmerizing decorative patterns and extraordinary sculptural and design details provide this authe...
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Late 20th Century Moroccan Medieval Jewelry Boxes

Materials

Bone

Antique Gilt Bronze Decorative Jewelry Box or Casket with Floral Decoration
Located in Hamilton, Ontario
This antique gilt bronze decorative or jewelry box is unsigned, but presumed to have originated from France and dates to approximately 1900 and done in a Renaissance Revival style. T...
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Early 20th Century French Medieval Jewelry Boxes

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Bronze

Middle Eastern Syrian Inlay Jewelry Box
Located in North Hollywood, CA
Exquisite Middle Eastern Syrian inlay jewelry box intricately inlaid with Moorish motif designs which have been painstakingly inlaid micro mosaic marque...
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Early 20th Century Medieval Jewelry Boxes

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Fruitwood

Previously Available Items
19th Century French Gothic Bronze Doré Jewelry Box with Repousse Cherub Motifs
Located in Dallas, TX
This antique gilt bronze casket was created in France, circa 1870. The miniature trunk-shaped box with bombe top, stands on gargoyle figure feet, and is embellished with intricate repousse cherub and scrolled decor on all four sides. The jewelry box is upholstered with the original inside luxurious red velvet. The small safe...
Category

Late 19th Century French Antique Medieval Jewelry Boxes

Materials

Bronze

Rare and Beautiful 16th Century Siena Box
Located in Madrid, ES
Rare and Beautiful 16th century Siena box 13cm x 15.5cm x 27cm Paper mache box gilt and lacquered in blue and red. Good condition for the age.
Category

16th Century Italian Antique Medieval Jewelry Boxes

Materials

Wood

Rare and Beautiful 16th Century Siena Box
Rare and Beautiful 16th Century Siena Box
H 6.11 in W 10.63 in D 5.12 in
Northern Italy Box Set with 16th Century Floral Motifs
Located in Madrid, ES
Northern Italy box set with 16th century Floral Motifs 18.5x30x16cm Casket in carved and gilded wood with floral motifs. Sealing wax stamp inside. Vintag...
Category

16th Century Italian Antique Medieval Jewelry Boxes

Materials

Wood

19th Century French Bronze Doré and Pewter Jewelry Box with Putti Decor
Located in Dallas, TX
This antique two-tone casket was created in France, circa 1880. Rectangular in shape, the gilt bronze and pewter box is embellished with cherub and scroll motifs. The detail work is ...
Category

Late 19th Century French Antique Medieval Jewelry Boxes

Materials

Bronze, Pewter

19th Century French Bronze Doré Jewelry Box with Pastoral Scene
Located in Dallas, TX
This antique gilt bronze casket was created in France, circa 1880. Oval in shape, the jewelry box stands on four small round feet, and is embellished...
Category

Late 19th Century French Antique Medieval Jewelry Boxes

Materials

Bronze

19th Century French Polished Cast Iron Safe with Key and Two-Letter Combination
Located in Dallas, TX
Keep your jewelry and important documents locked up in this elegant, antique safe from the Champagne-Ardenne region of France. Crafted circa 1880 in cast iron with gun barrel finish ...
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Late 19th Century French Antique Medieval Jewelry Boxes

Materials

Brass, Iron

Medieval Style Continental Silver Jewelry Box
Located in New York, NY
Medieval style, continental silver jewelry box, Germany, circa 1900. Decorated with Medieval figures and designs. Measures: 9 1/4 inches wide x almost 2 1/2 inches high x 5 1/4 inche...
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Early 1900s German Antique Medieval Jewelry Boxes

Materials

Sterling Silver

Medieval-Style Sterling Silver '.950' Footed Jewelry Box with Hinged Lid, Paris
Located in New York, NY
Medieval-style, sterling silver (.950) casket - form jewelry box with hinged lid, having bun feet, Paris, circa 1900. Suede lined. Designed with mythical...
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Early 1900s French Antique Medieval Jewelry Boxes

Materials

Sterling Silver

19th Century French Gothic Bombe Bronze Doré Jewelry Box with Floral Motifs
Located in Dallas, TX
This antique gilt bronze casket was created in France, circa 1870. The miniature trunk-shaped box has a bombe top with handle, and is embellished with ...
Category

Late 19th Century French Antique Medieval Jewelry Boxes

Materials

Bronze

19th Century French Polished Cast Iron Safe with Key and Two-Letter Combination
Located in Dallas, TX
Keep your jewelry and important documents locked up in this fine, antique safe from the Champagne-Ardenne region of France. Crafted circa 1870 in cast iron with gun barrel finish, th...
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Late 19th Century French Antique Medieval Jewelry Boxes

Materials

Brass, Iron

19th Century French Gothic Silvered Bronze Doré Jewelry Box with Flowers Motifs
Located in Dallas, TX
This antique silver and gilt bronze box was created in France, circa 1850. The trunk-shaped box features intricate work on all four sides, a bombe top with handle. The metallic silve...
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Mid-19th Century French Antique Medieval Jewelry Boxes

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Silver Plate, Bronze

Medieval jewelry boxes for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a broad range of unique Medieval jewelry boxes for sale on 1stDibs. Many of these items were first offered in the 20th Century, but contemporary artisans have continued to produce works inspired by this style. If you’re looking to add vintage jewelry boxes created in this style to your space, the works available on 1stDibs include decorative objects and other home furnishings, frequently crafted with metal, wood and other materials. If you’re shopping for used Medieval jewelry boxes made in a specific country, there are Europe, France, and Italy pieces for sale on 1stDibs. While there are many designers and brands associated with original jewelry boxes, popular names associated with this style include and Europa Antiques. It’s true that these talented designers have at times inspired knockoffs, but our experienced specialists have partnered with only top vetted sellers to offer authentic pieces that come with a buyer protection guarantee. Prices for jewelry boxes differ depending upon multiple factors, including designer, materials, construction methods, condition and provenance. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $775 and tops out at $9,402 while the average work can sell for $2,774.

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