This little beauty is made of sterling silver and was made in England in the early 1900's. It is a small hinged box measuring approx. 2" x 2", with decorative textured surfaces. And the bottom of the piece is ribbed in texture. We came across this piece in a recent estate appraisal project we completed for a client right here in Toronto. It is called a 'vesta case' or a 'match safe'. It was widely used in the day to store matches, and since almost everyone was a smoker in those days, these pieces were prolifically produced in many materials, including gold and silver, enamel, leather, wood, horn, ceramics and many more. Rare and precious examples can sell for over $10,000. Matches were stored inside and the bottom textured surface was used for striking and lighting the match. Vesta cases are extremely collectable, and our client was very pleased with our identification of this little gem.
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