Antique Primitve Wooden Slide Top "House of Seven Gables" Box donkey Another wonderful box

Another wonderful box

as documented in photos) is mounted to a sheet behind it on which appears the artist’s signature

and how protective the shell/lid feels in relation to the box below

6 1/4" x 8 5/8" x 3/4"

on a desk for paperclips

Antique Primitve Wooden Slide Top "House of Seven Gables" Box donkey Another wonderful boxWell, 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,