Early 19th Century Hand-carved Slide Lid Box in Glorious, Joyful Original Paint patterned There are a couple of

There are a couple of diagonal surface scratches at lower left

and the specifics so great

and this is very much one of those--aged and weathered to perfection but

with the style of those carved numbers making me believe it dates to the late 19th/early 20th century

4 1/4" across at handle

Early 19th Century Hand-carved Slide Lid Box in Glorious, Joyful Original Paint patterned There are a couple ofI do have a weakness for boxes, but even more so a weakness for glorious paint, and no way could I look at the painted decoration on this box and not need to have it near me, for a little while or forever! How joyful those stripes and curlicues like trains of smoke running up the sides against that gorgeous bittersweet ground, and then these diamond shaped fields of white dots on the slide lid, like abstracted clouds, and also feeling kin to early