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Box

A work made of red oak and eastern white pine.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of red oak and eastern white pine.

Date:

1650–1700

Artist:

Artist unknown (American, 17th–18th century)
Eastern Massachusetts

About this artwork

The most common object in a colonial home, a small, lidded rectangular storage box would have held personal articles, such as household items, writing implements, or a Bible. They were decorated simply, usually only on the front, with stylized plants or vegetation and geometric lines. The Art Institute’s box is segmented by an upper band of intersecting lunettes with intervening foliate leaves and a lower border with repeating floral S-scrolls. The initials “M P,” carved in the center of the box, are presumably those of the original owner (although his or her identity is unknown).

Status

On View, Gallery 165

Department

Arts of the Americas

Artist

Artist unknown

Title

Box

Place

Eastern Massachusetts (Object made in)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

c. 1650–1700

Medium

Red oak and eastern white pine

Inscriptions

Initials "MP" carved in center front

Dimensions

24.8 × 63.5 × 45.7 cm (9 3/4 × 25 × 18 in.)

Credit Line

Wirt D. Walker Fund

Reference Number

1946.564

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/56095/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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