Antique Relief Carved Folk Art Book Shaped Box with Mother, Daughter, and Slide Opening Back snip cards resting on the flat end

resting on the flat end

and for its black surface that also shows some traces of red on the handle where it was clearly much grabbed

what a striking

I purchased it because I thought it was just a beautiful and curious sculptural object that would look great propped or hanging somewhere

Antique Relief Carved Folk Art Book Shaped Box with Mother, Daughter, and Slide Opening Back snip cards resting on the flat endI love a book shaped box, or book shaped anything, really, and love the very folky relief carving as well as the hidden box deceptiveness! about this one. Terrific faces and hands and hair and surface on the mother and daughter in chair carved on the face of it, with ALBUM arching overhead making it all feel very cozy, and a wonderfully carved latch lock, too, spanning the gold painted recessed "pages" on the side. On the reverse, unusual in my