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Carved wooden jewelry box likely made in Switzerland

Dear John: My husband and I live in Beverly Hills. Your column has been most helpful by shedding light on numerous items we have. I have a question about a carved box. Inside was a note about the box. It mentions that it was purchased in an antiques shop in London during the 1950s. The note said it was carved in the Black Forest area of Germany during the late 1800s. As you can see there is a rooster on top, a hen and several baby chicks around the edge. The box is carved to look like a basket.Get more news about Handmade Wooden Jewelry Box,you can vist our website!

In the last few years, much has been discovered about Black Forest carved decorative arts previously thought to have been made in the Black Forest region of Germany during the 19th century. Research by several scholars has established beyond all doubt that Black Forest carvings were the sole province of the Swiss.

In the early part of the 19th century, German carvers in the Black Forest area were producing heavily carved cuckoo clock cases which were then fitted with imported Swiss movements. Swiss carvers soon started to produce their own cuckoo clock cases in a similar but lighter style of carving. These clocks became known as Black Forest clocks. It was therefore a short leap to categorize not only cuckoo clocks but all carvings from the Swiss region as Black Forest. The misattribution is explained by the authors of the book “Swiss Carvings, The Art of the Black Forest, 1820 to 1940.”

I suspect your beautifully carved jewelry box was produced during the late 1890s to early 1900s in the town of Brienz, Switzerland. At the time there were over 1,000 carvers producing a wide range of decorative carvings for export. In the current marketplace, I think your carved jewelry box would sell in the $1,000 to $2,000 range.