All The Pretty Boxes

All The Pretty Boxes

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I found the above picture online over the weekend and fell in love!  How beautiful are those little blue boxes?!  I love things like this displayed in groups.  So pretty, so interesting.

Although I have searched the Internet, I could not figure out what kind of boxes these are.

I found a couple of pretty images of snuff boxes.  The word “snuff” just sounds gross to me, but these sure are nice to look at, aren’t they?

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I don’t think the boxes in the first picture are snuff boxes though.  Any ideas?  I would love to get a little collection going if I could figure out what they were!  Special gold stars to those that have an idea.

Also, don’t forget to enter the $500 Home Depot gift card giveaway if you haven’t already.  I’m announcing the winner tomorrow morning!  You can enter here – make sure you follow the directions for entering!

One more thing, thank you so much for all of the well wishes and messages regarding my recovery.  My migraines are so much better, thank the Lord!  I’m headed back to the doctor tomorrow to hopefully correct an unexpected complication from the surgery, but I hope to be up and running, or just up really, by next week!  Thanks again, my family and I can definitely feel the thoughts and prayers.

Written by Grace

17 Comments
  • cathy
    Posted at 11:56h, 12 August Reply

    Grace, try “powder boxes”, I work estate sales alot and have seen these. For the life of me, I can’t remember exactly what they used to hold – will ask around. They are pretty – people don’t seem to collect much anymore – glad to see that you are enjoying “collections” – I think its a dying art. Your generation seems to want clean, uncluttered surfaces – no room for collections, but they are so fun and interesting to look at and to wonder “what was THAT used for ” ???

    • Grace
      Posted at 12:49h, 12 August Reply

      Cathy, thank you so much! I will definitely look into that! And I do agree with you – a small, interesting collection can really make a room come alive! G

      • cathy
        Posted at 17:34h, 12 August Reply

        Ok, ask my estate sale guru and she says they are jewelry boxes or hair receivers – ladies would clean out their hair brushes and put the hair in the hair receiver !!! Seems kinda gross doesn’t it ?? Many years ago, hair was woven into all kinds of things !!! No thank you !!!

        • Grace
          Posted at 22:48h, 12 August Reply

          Whoa! Seriously? We need some hair receivers around here then! Before Kent and I had children, people used to tease us about the ridiculous amount of hair our kids would have since we both have very full, thick heads of hair. Four kids later, I think we did alright. Everyone has beautiful hair. 🙂 We could easily fill up several hair receivers a day though, ha!

    • cathy
      Posted at 17:35h, 12 August Reply

      Ok, ask my estate sale guru and she says they are jewelry boxes or hair receivers – ladies would clean out their hair brushes and put the hair in the hair receiver !!! Seems kinda gross doesn’t it ?? Many years ago, hair was woven into all kinds of things !!! No thank you !!!

  • Heather
    Posted at 15:04h, 12 August Reply

    Hi Grace,
    I think the boxes in the third pic are prayer boxes or wish boxes. People write their prayers in a little slip of paper and put them in the box. Real Simple magazine had an article on these about 2 years ago. Not sure, but that is my guess.
    Heather Wheatley

    • Grace
      Posted at 22:49h, 12 August Reply

      Heather, I LOVE that idea! Now I really need to get some of these, how sweet is that? Thank you so much for sharing!

  • CJ Harris
    Posted at 17:06h, 12 August Reply

    Hi Grace,

    I found some of the boxes in the first photo you had with the gorgeous blue glass. There are some very similar on Ebay. It looks like they may be made in France. One was around $395.00. You have great taste in antique glass boxes!

    CJ

    • Grace
      Posted at 22:50h, 12 August Reply

      CJ, ha! Of course! What key words were you searching for? I looked on Ebay and didn’t find anything. Maybe I’ll try “france powder box”. Thank you for looking! Gold Star. 🙂

  • Emily
    Posted at 17:31h, 12 August Reply

    Good detective work on the blue boxes CJ Harris!

    I do have a small collection of the black lacquered Kashmir Indian boxes like several I spy in the last photo.
    I find them for pennies at estate sales all of the time!
    In the past,I have given them away as gifts or sold them in my etsy shop.
    I need to start collecting more!
    You can also search paper mache boxes, black lacquered boxes, Indian Kashmir boxes on ebay and etsy if you are interested in finding some like these.

    • Grace
      Posted at 22:52h, 12 August Reply

      Emily, gold star for you, too! 🙂 I did not know what those were, but now I will keep my eye out! Good info! Thanks so much for sharing!

  • Susan
    Posted at 20:53h, 12 August Reply

    There is a box for sale on the parishotelboutique.com website. They call is a casket or a jewelry box.

    • Grace
      Posted at 22:52h, 12 August Reply

      Susan, ooooo thanks! I’m going to go check it out!

  • Grace
    Posted at 22:58h, 12 August Reply

    Super reader Julie Clark just sent me this pin and pin board with tons of great info about these beautiful opaline boxes! You should check it out if you’re interested! Thanks again, Julie!

    http://pinterest.com/pin/22518066857165754/?e_t_s=pin-text&e_t=f1fe50a5500741d8bf954ff50bb1cb1a&utm_source=sendgrid.com&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=share_pin_not_user

  • Annelise Wilcox
    Posted at 23:44h, 13 August Reply

    Emily,

    I have a board inspired by these French Blue Opaline boxes. Pricey gems of goodness. There are quite a few lingering around my mothers house and I have had to promise “too much to share” in order to get her to send these to me. By the way, I only read three blogs these days: yours, darlene at Fieldstone Hill, and Emily Henderson”s. Love your work and even though my oldest are almost 10, I too had four children in four years. Do some research of French Opaline and you may come across comparisons to milk glass, hobnail and vaseline glass, US counterparts.

    Good luck with the research.

    Annelise

  • Dacia @ Lemon Drop Life
    Posted at 13:12h, 08 September Reply

    You can also find opaline boxes on Ruby Lane…I’ve looked at them a dozen times! They’re pricey though..my husband likes to say I’ve got champagne taste on a beer budget!

    • Grace
      Posted at 16:17h, 08 September Reply

      Dacia, yes! I love that site, and I’ve looked there, too! So so pretty, but so so pricey. I’ve found that Ebay is my best bet for “good deals” on one. I know what your husband means. 🙂

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