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Box

1675–1700
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 708
The most common small storage unit in the seventeenth century was the rectangular box with a hinged lid. Boxes provided a place to keep valuables, documents, writing implements, books, and small articles of apparel. Except for one rare example decorated with applied moldings, these boxes are carved utilizing a vocabulary of stylized plant forms and simple geometric shapes. The boxes are all of simple five-board nailed construction and have a deep association with America’s so-called "Pilgrim Century." They were avidly sought after by the earliest collectors of seventeenth-century American oak furniture, hence their acquisition by the museum in 1910 as part of the foundation for the museum’s collection of early American furniture.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Box
  • Date: 1675–1700
  • Geography: Made in New England, United States
  • Culture: American
  • Medium: Oak, pine
  • Dimensions: 9 1/2 x 29 1/2 x 16 in. (24.1 x 74.9 x 40.6 cm)
  • Credit Line: Gift of Mrs. Russell Sage, 1909
  • Object Number: 10.125.10
  • Curatorial Department: The American Wing

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