The Piece

A charming vintage Villeroy & Boch Mettlach Asta covered trinket box, featuring a compact oval ceramic form with colorful European folk decoration. The lid is illustrated with two figures in traditional dress beneath a flowering tree, accompanied by a small white dog and framed by clean red and green border banding.

Small decorative motifs wrap around the sides, including garden tools, flowers, birds, and architectural folk details. The piece has a sweet, collected quality that feels equally at home on a vanity, nightstand, powder room shelf, or antique writing desk.

Design & Construction

Produced by Villeroy & Boch in Mettlach, Germany, this lidded box reflects the company’s long history of decorative ceramic production. The underside bears the green Villeroy & Boch Mettlach Made in Germany Saar Asta mark with the number 2752.

The documented Asta mark was used after 1955, placing this piece in the postwar vintage period, most likely circa late 1950s–1960s. Villeroy & Boch traces its ceramic history to 1748, with the Villeroy and Boch families formally merging their ceramic businesses in 1836. (The Old Stuff)

The glossy white ceramic body, fitted oval lid, polychrome folk imagery, and crisp painted banding give the piece a refined yet approachable European charm.

Product Details

Why This Belongs in Your Home

This is the kind of small decorative piece that makes a space feel layered, personal, and collected. It brings in European character without overwhelming a room, and its functional form makes it just as useful as it is decorative.

Use it to hold rings, earrings, keys, matches, keepsakes, or small vanity essentials. It pairs beautifully with antique brass, warm wood, marble, linen, painted furniture, and traditional interiors that benefit from a little color and history.