Spice box and spice containers

1880-1920

Measurements

4 in x 7-1/8 in (dia.)

Materials

Japanned or painted tinned sheet iron, brass (lid handle)

Credit Line

Historic Odessa Foundation, The David Wilson Mansion, Inc.

Accession Number

1971.896

Inscription

Faint, often illegible, names of spices are stenciled in paint onto the lids of the small containers. 

Condition Notes

The right side of rim of the lid has rusted through in two places; the painted finish has delaminated completely on that side, suggesting a water drip or other environmental damage occurred.  Areas of paint loss are distributed around the box.  One container from inside the box is missing as is the lid for one of the six remaining containers.

Provenance

Ex coll. Mrs. E. Tatnall (Mary Corbit) Warner

Comments

The round toleware box with a hinged lid opens to seven lidded containers (six of which survive, one of which is missing a lid), each with the name of a spice painted onto the body.  Early accession records identify five of the names as “Ginger,” “Cinnamon,” “Allspice,” “Pepper,” and “Mace.”  The hinged lid has a brass post-and-bail handle, of the kind commonly found on furniture, bolted through the lid and attached with round nuts that appear undisturbed.  The box and containers within are painted black.  The paint has oxidized and darkened through many decades, although a reddish or purple-brown tone remains.  The finish exhibits iridescence.

This spice box was among the many items assembled by Mrs. Mary Corbit Warner and installed in the David Wilson house, which she acquired and furnished before her death in 1923.  Many of those furnishings descended in the Corbit and Wilson families.  This spice box, however, is identical to others on the antiques and collectibles market.  Research to date has not led to a specific maker, place, or time, but stenciled spice names visible on other boxes have decorative devices that appear to be post 1880.  Mrs. Warner must have bought it for its antique appearance for her own use.

An earlier japanned box (accession no. 1971.1532), dated 1858, was owned by Daniel Wheeler Corbit (1843-1922).  See Zimmerman, A Storied Past (2023), 225, no. 83.