- Accepts Etsy gift cards
This is an idiosyncratic little box. The over-scaled detailing is exaggerated with uniquely large spaces between the hand carved grooves. Despite the lack of meticulous planning in favor of a more free hand approach, the box is very solidly built and structurally strong. The clever combination of the pyramidal sliding top and lower drawer give it a puzzle box quality. The front of the drawer shows signs of having previously had a handle. 11 x 8 x 8 inches
Tramp art was popular from roughly the 1870s through the 1940s. No one knows for sure how the practice got started, but the materials used to make it, especially wooden cigar boxes, had become standard around the 1850s. Cigar smoking was very popular at the time, and by law, the boxes couldn't be reused by cigar manufacturers, so there were plenty of them around. The people who made tramp art weren't trained artists. They taught themselves how to chip the wood and assemble objects. Some sources suggest that tramp art was made by itinerant workers and tradesmen, which means they traveled from place to place selling goods and services. But not all tramp art was made by wanderers or people without permanent homes. It took time and patience to assemble tramp art objects.