17th century quality oak bible box

Quality antique Victorian carved oak candle box having a quality carved oak candle box carved in relief with shields and shaped crests having a carved sloping lid opening to reveal a...

Antique Victorian quality carved mahogany coal box having a quality mahogany top with a gallery back supported by turned columns above a carved mahogany pull down front with the orig...

C1680 oak bible box well carved on 3 sides good colour and patination 58cms Wide x 45cms Deep  x 24cms High

A good antique English, Charles II (Carolean) period carved oak bible or document box, circa 1680. Such boxes were particularly popular in the 17th century, when printed bibles were very expensive and a treasured family possession. The bible was most likely the only book owned by a family and was also the means of recording births, deaths & marriages which would be written on the flyleaf or endpapers. They were also used to protect other important documents and valuables and were brought to colonial America by early settlers. This bible box dates shortly after the English Civil War & the brief time that England was a Republic (known then as the Commonwealth) under Oliver Cromwell. The box typifies those Puritan values, simple six plank construction with a hinged lid enclosing a storage area for a bible or important documents. The front of the box having a carved foliate twin lunette design with a hand cut steel lock & hasp above, the box is robust & solid & for it's 350 or so years it is in very good condition! This very early antique carved bible box...