Antique Primitve Wooden Slide Top "House of Seven Gables" Box turtle ornament Whatever the case

Whatever the case

This is about the most refined and beautifully made brush I've come across

Such a pretty pair

and blood red mouth

Antique Primitve Wooden Slide Top "House of Seven Gables" Box turtle ornament Whatever the caseWell, what a box! And what a curiosity! (I'm just sorry these photos do no justice to its great warm patina and wonderful, weighty presence.) I like to think this is the box in which Nathaniel Hawthorne delivered the handwritten manuscript for "House of the Seven Gables" (based in Salem, MA) to his publisher in 1851 or "Part Five" of it, specifically. The box itself, with these fantastic fat dovetailed corners, I do believe is at very least that old,