This is a vintage jewelry box from the 40's that has a music box hidden in the side shed. The turning water wheel is what inspired me to pick this one up from a local Antique store.
I wouldn't say that this was in mint condition, it was missing it mirrors and the velvety interior was shot and missing pieces.
So I gutted it out and lined it with a thin layer of exotics so it was new and fresh allowing for good gluing moving forward. I learned a trick from Luthiers long ago about short skinny sticks and how they can make for great lil clamps.
When cleaning out the interior of the box, I found that the front door was not in there permanent, so I removed it and cleaned it up. I knew this loose door was going to become a working part of the design.
The top window had an issue with a torn image. I googled it, found it and printed out a new one and glued it in.
Generally, the first step towards making a puzzle box is adding the lid tab so it can have another part interact with it so it will effectively keep the lid locked. You can see the lid frame has a loose joint that needed regluing. The whole piece was checked for fit and function, even the Herdy Gerdy was removed and cleaned.
Since the mirrors were already out of it I decided I would get artsy with it and add a famous Grist Mill painting by John Constable in the 1800's.
Even the underside is not free from inclusion, lol. Anywhere that provides a secret spot to add dials and what not is taken advantage of.
I wanted the front side to remain pure to it original context. So that left everywhere else to play with.
After following creative intuition for a week or so, I had it all put together. Nothing I enjoy more than filling a box with so much movement that it can be fun just trying to understand how it all works, ...when you finally get in that is.
When you work on something like this it is a lot of fun for me to some historical research to learn more about these items. I was curious about the rocks on the roof, and apparently the Swiss had slate rooves back in the day and needed rocks to hold down some of the tiles from the wind.
These jewelry boxes made in the 40's came at a time when the average women were beginning to buy jewelry enough to need one.
A fun part of this story is that I have a friend who also makes puzzle boxes from the US. She just happened to have the exact same jewelry box. New to retrofitting she thought she would give it a go. We both did the fb thing, talking about them and eventually auctioned our puzzle boxes off, and interestingly enough, the same guy bought both!
