Stunning Antique Bentwood Handle Wooden Pantry Box in Blue Paint folk art bull and a few tiny white

and a few tiny white spots

I believe this box would have been used to store tobacco

I found this wonderful box at an estate sale in MA in a modest house packed to the gills with a long lifetime's accumulation

certainly made for the tourist market

Stunning Antique Bentwood Handle Wooden Pantry Box in Blue Paint folk art bull and a few tiny whiteI'm not an expert on antique bentwood pantry boxes, but I've looked at enough to recognize a really beautiful and beautifully constructed one, and this, though missing a lid, is most definitely is that to me it completely embodies why one might become obsessed with antique bentwood pantry boxes! The blue paint is, to my eye, just out of this world, as is the bleed from the neat row of fat iron nails down the seam. 19th century New England I believe