Pair of Handmade Aromatic Red Cedar Boxes with Stepped Brass Hasps and Shaped Bracket Feet, with Three Padlocks, c. 1980–2000

The Piece

Two lidded boxes in solid aromatic red cedar, made to the same design in slightly different proportions — one taller and deeper, one longer and lower — so they stack into a single composed block or stand apart as a pair.

The wood is the reason to look twice. Red cedar runs two colours in the same board: a deep rose-red heartwood and a pale cream sapwood, and whoever milled these let the boundary between them wander across the lids and sides rather than cutting it out. Small tight knots punctuate the grain. The finish is a clear high gloss that pushes the red almost to lacquer depth without obscuring anything underneath.

The corners are eased and the lid edges rounded over, so nothing is sharp to the hand. Each box stands on four shaped bracket feet cut from the carcase sides, lifting it clear of the surface and throwing a shadow line underneath. The hasps are stepped brass in a terraced profile, hinged at the lid line with a staple that takes a padlock. Inside, both boxes are left raw — unfinished cedar, exactly as it should be.

Three small padlocks accompany them, two in a rounded barrel form and one square, all with textured panels and softly worn plating — and all three come with their keys.

History & Provenance

Aromatic red cedar is not a cedar at all. It is Juniperus virginiana, an eastern American juniper, and its reputation rests on chemistry rather than looks: the heartwood carries cedrol and related oils that repel clothes moths and their larvae. That single property built an entire American furniture category — the cedar chest, the cedar closet, the cedar-lined drawer — and it is why the interiors of these boxes are bare. Sealing the inside with varnish would trap the oil and defeat the whole purpose. Raw cedar inside is the mark of a maker who understood the material.

The construction says small shop or skilled amateur rather than factory. The two boxes share a design but not exact dimensions, the feet are cut rather than applied, and the grain has been selected for figure instead of uniformity. Cedar boxes of this kind were a staple of American woodworking — a project that used a beautiful native wood, produced something genuinely useful, and could be finished on a home bench.

The hasps date them. That stepped, terraced brass profile is Southwest revival hardware, part of the same design wave that ran through American interiors from the early eighties into the nineties. It is bought hardware rather than shop-made, which is what allows a date range at all — there is no maker's mark, stamp, or label on either box.

Product Details

Why It Belongs in Your Home

Cedar earns its place by doing something no other box does: it protects what is inside it. Wool, cashmere, silk scarves, a christening gown, folded linens, anything a moth would otherwise find — these boxes keep it. That makes them useful in a way a decorative box is not, and it is the reason to buy cedar over walnut or oak at the same price.

They are also handsome enough to leave out. The red-to-cream grain reads warm against green, cream, or dark painted walls, and the stacked pair gives a shelf or a dresser top the kind of vertical block that anchors an arrangement. Use the larger for scarves or letters, the smaller for jewellery or watches, or split them between two rooms.

A note on care: never varnish, oil, or seal the inside. If the aroma fades after some years, open the box and rub the interior lightly with fine sandpaper — that opens fresh wood and the scent returns immediately, and it can be repeated for decades. Keep the exterior finish dusted dry and away from direct sun, which will pull the red toward brown. The padlocks work and their keys are included, so keep the keys somewhere other than the box — a working lock with a lost key turns a cedar box into a problem. A drop of light machine oil in the keyway once every few years is all they will ever ask for.