Description:
JB307: Antique, late 19th c. box, with the top curved veneered with amboyna, and inlaid with parquetry, and having an escutcheon and central inlay to the top depicting a compass point star in contrasting mother of pearl and abalone. Inside, the box has a replacement liftout tray lined with velvet and suitable for jewelry and knickknacks.  Circa 1890.

Origin: UK

Circa: 1890

Size: 30cm wide by 22cm by 14cm:  11.8 inches wide by  8.7 inches by  5.5 inches.

Condition: Very good overall. Working lock and key. See images.

Inside, the box there is a replacement liftout tray lined with velvet and suitable for jewelry and knickknacks. 

The central panel of amboyna is framed by an inlaid strip of light and dark woods. The central strip, cut on a slant and joined in "herringbone" is in tulip-wood.  

This is an elaborate inlay to create: it uses light and dark woods in contrast. there are two elements in the central pattern: quartered, to get a natural light dark pattern,  tulip wood lined on each side with a light colored wood such as maple, holly, or hornbeam. It is the same wood used in the next element. I think it is maple/ sycamore. The central element is a hexagon.  A figure of six sides. Somehow the pattern is approached by triangular form elements and lines of contrasting dark wood. we have a square! An early version of favicon these little pics which connect us to our "favorites" and flag websites, in computer memory.

It connects a six to an eight, in a form that the eye accepts, and the brain furls in puzzlement.   

 

Amboyna is a burr wood. the little dark points are all potentials of growth. Branches waiting  to be given a chance to grow. 

 

The top is inlaid with a dramatic version of a six pointed star in contrasting variegated green blue abalone shell and iridescent mother of pearl.   

Compass points, as a design are built on both eight and six.

The eight gives rise to √2. root 2. The six is developed on triangles of 60 degrees. 

Inside, the box there is a replacement liftout tray lined with velvet and suitable for jewelry and knickknacks. 

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