Object of the Day: A Victorian Knife Casket

Blackened with a century’s worth of grime, at first glance, this object seemed like just a wooden box. On closer inspection, I could see that beneath the dirt, there were traces of a pattern and the faint sheen of Mother-of-Pearl. The price was low, and, so, the box came home with me.


The repeated application and removal of paste wax revealed a lovely casket of deep maple, inlaid with Mother-of-Pearl. Most likely a knife casket for use on a sideboard, the style and craftsmanship of the box suggests that it was created in the mid-Nineteenth Century and is most likely American in origin. With its shimmering geometric borders and carefully inset rosettes, this box didn’t contain any treasure, but proved to be a treasure itself.