Elegant Antique Spruce Gum Box with Top and Bottom Slide Openings vintage Asian plate it includes a rectangular tray

it includes a rectangular tray with a pair of boxes--one round

These trains (scroll through all photos to see the complete set) I purchased at the estate sale of a family in Newburyport

so this one sold me immediately

I just really like these old magic lantern slides as objects

as there is variation among the faces

Elegant Antique Spruce Gum Box with Top and Bottom Slide Openings vintage Asian plate it includes a rectangular trayThere are fancier spruce gum boxes out there, but I think this plain one, found in Maine, is as lovely as they come. Associated with logging and lumbering activities, spruce gum boxes, also known as gum books as they were typically shaped like books, as this one is, were usually made from a solid piece of wood, as this one was, with a sliding opening at top and sometimes at bottom as well, as is the case here. Now highly collectible, these were made