Size #3 Oval Button Box
7½ × 5 × 1¾ in — $52
A low box in the Size #3 footprint, made for buttons and stitching smalls you want at a glance. The papered version, lined with original 19th-century newspapers, appears in the paper-lined releases.
Shown in an antiqued natural finish
Swallowtail fingers and copper tacks
The pine bottom
In hand, for scale
The papered version, opened up
Papered, holding spools and notions
How the boxes are made
Every box starts as a log, bought through local woodsmen here in Maine and milled right on my property. Bands of quartersawn maple, birch, or ash, tops and bottoms of quartersawn Eastern white pine. The swallowtail joints are cut one at a time by hand and fastened with copper tacks made on original 19th-century machines, and the lid band is bent around the finished box itself, so the cover fits that one box and no other.
Painted boxes come in red, pumpkin, yellow, green, blue, grey, black, sea green, or New Lebanon Finish, each sealed with two coats of pure tung oil. Natural boxes are dyed to an antiqued tone and sealed with five coats. The copper tacks are darkened for an aged look, and following tradition, the bottom of each painted piece is left unpainted, then dyed and oiled to an aged patina.
Sizes, prices and every finish are on the oval boxes page. How purchasing works.