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Japanese (Hokkaido) Calligraphy Box circa 1930
Japanese (Hokkaido) Calligraphy Box circa 1930
As I often say, I am not a woodworker but an admirer of wood and wood in items. It this case a gift from a lady friend for a birthday 4years ago. Its a Japanese Calligraphy Box from the 1930s. It is simply made, with pine drawer frames & butt joins inside. The outside is more decorative with figured Japanese Ash I'm guessing for drawer fronts and box exterior. I love the ink stains inside a legacy of its use and a small inscription at the rear of one drawer (a Buddhist inscription I had translated once)
My intention now is to modify it slightly to house some small valuable and historic items like rare wood oils (called “ouds”), some plant essential oils and my alluvial gold panned from many creek and rivers (mostly of sentimental and provenance value), beautiful pens I was given and maybe similar items.
As I have had little interest in the apothecary box* I mentioned & wished to commission (see link below) I have decided to now add removable dividers into the drawers of this box so they can accommodate the small, historic corked vials of pigments and plant extracts (see below) used by apothecarists which I have keep for their historic interest. (The perspex dividers were suitable for the smaller gold vials, but are too small for the chemical vials.).
I show some pics of the box, inside and examples of vials I wish to store into it. Apologies for dark nature of pics they were taken in poor lighting without any enhancement
* Attention Box Makers - An unusual Commission
Note: "An apothecarist is an advanced version of the alchemist. The apothecarist has skills in herbology and toxicology, and gathers the ingredients for, and makes the medicines (once) used by the populace. Sometimes the apothecarists work out of their homes, but more often they work out of a shop."
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