This is the ornate case of a 19th c. German music box. Originally it could play several tunes (fewer than an MP3 player, but the same idea) and the case was a magnificently detailed wooden baroque scene of cherubs and ornate vegetation. Sitting for a while in water, however, revealed that it is actually made from glued sawdust (a precursor of pressboard) with a thin veneer of dark hardwood that had apparently been steamed and pressed into a very elaborately ...
These were two boxed sets of very high-quality Sheffield steel - steak knives in one box, and carving implements in the other. Made in the 1950s, they were given pearl plastic handles which were originally strong and resilient. The makers probably thought that they were superior to the somewhat fragile mother-of-pearl that might originally have been used. These boxes lay unopened for about fifty years, and upon opening revealed that the plastic handles had completely degraded – leaving the Sheffield ...