Antique Primitve Wooden Slide Top "House of Seven Gables" Box turtle ornament and blood red mouth

and blood red mouth

and I think the polka dot and striped patterns

though I'd probably set it in an arrangement of objects or hang it somewhere--and am rather fantasizing about a whole wall of these

Such a pretty pair

Whatever the case

Antique Primitve Wooden Slide Top "House of Seven Gables" Box turtle ornament and blood red mouthWell, what a box! And what a curiosity! (I'm just sorry these photos do no justice to its great warm patina and wonderful, weighty presence.) I like to think this is the box in which Nathaniel Hawthorne delivered the handwritten manuscript for "House of the Seven Gables" (based in Salem, MA) to his publisher in 1851 or "Part Five" of it, specifically. The box itself, with these fantastic fat dovetailed corners, I do believe is at very least that old,