Mahogany Knife Boxes, ca. 1800
Appraised Value:
$20,000 - $40,000
IMAGE: 1 of 2
Appraisal Video:
Appraised By:
John Hays
Decorative Arts
Deputy Chairman
Christie's
Appraisal Transcript:
GUEST: This box was a piece that I inherited. And my grandparents were originally from Boston and retired in Norwalk, Connecticut. It's from a pair. I remember as a child it was on a sideboard with family silver in the box and it came to the West Coast in Atherton, California, in 1938.
APPRAISER: Well, you said something very important. You mentioned sideboard, and what's important to understand about boxes that keep silver, flatware or cutlery is that sideboards were made for dining rooms. And dining rooms didn't really exist as a separate room in which you would have your meals until the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. And so sideboards, Federal sideboards in America, had these boxes that were made for them that sat on top of them in which to hold your cutlery. And this box... has a beautiful arrangement of holes... your knives and forks and spoons would slide into. And then they would have been locked up-- this beautiful silver-mounted lock here-- to keep the silver flatware safe when it wasn't being used. What's so exciting about your box here is that you said it's one of a pair. These are often split up over the years, so it's rare to have a pair of boxes. And then this one is even rarer because it's American. The secondary wood is North American white pine and if you look along the base, you see this saw-tooth inlay decoration which is very typical of Boston which is where you said your family came from. This is mahogany, and you see these beautiful inlayed pilasters on the front of the piece here and here. It's American, it was made in Boston, they survive as a pair. They've never been out of your family?
GUEST: No. Would the sideboard have been a companion with the knife boxes?
APPRAISER: Very probably... and in very rare instances you see that the decoration matches the sideboard. Does the family still have the sideboard?
GUEST: Yes, I have it.
APPRAISER: You have the sideboard? Well, this single knife box, by itself would be worth $5,000 to $8,000, but a pair would bring $20,000 to $30,000. (groans softly, laughs)
GUEST: (groans softly, laughs) Where's a Kleenex?
APPRAISER: (laughing)
GUEST: Oh, my God. Isn't it amazing? Jeez. Wow.
APPRAISER: So I'm glad your family took care of it.
GUEST: God, that's so... That's incredible. So insurance?
APPRAISER: $40,000.
GUEST: Wow.
