Object Description
The cross-grain figured olive moulded top is decorated in well chosen hand cut olive oysters lined with a fine stringing of holly or box in a geometric fashion, consisting of roundels and quarter roundels to each corner and further banded in holly. Similarly, the face of the frieze is veneered in oysters of olive and figured to the sides.
It should be noted that the box is of the most wonderful rich colour and has a very well thought out design .
The curiously named ‘lace box’ or ‘bible box’ veneered in oyster cut hardwoods such as olive and Kingwood were popular amongst the middle and higher classes of society from C.1660-1700.
Literature: H. Cescinsky, English Furniture of the Eighteenth Century, London 1909, vol. I, p. 97, fig. 121.