You know, I've always been so fascinated by the travel vanity items, sets, trousse de voyage and necessaire created by the French primarily, and these small vest pocket etui I've accumulated over decades still thrill me. I'm downsizing my own collections, however, and so here is one more: Case is just over 2.5" tall, yet holds writing tools and knife and vanity items, missing only a small round stylus or lead, and if I can locate my tiny pencils, I'll put one in to complete the interior. Silver mount with tortoise shell veneer, it's just a beautiful little luxury. I always wonder about the original owners, the travels, its story. Full measurements noted on the photos.
Very good condition for age and type, it's rare to find these complete with the original interior fittings, tools. This one has all of them but a pencil or stylus. A 2-leaf ivory writing pad, folding knife, bodkin (large needle with string/ribbon threading tool - clothing was often pulled together with strings, remember, no zippers, no hook and eye this long ago). One tool is a toothpick and an ear wax spoon. Various states of perfection, there are also imperfections to the exterior of the etui, shown in detail in our photos. More typical is to find them very damaged, missing much or all of the shell, or the interior tools. Rare treasure, this!
IMPORTANT NOTE regarding antique tortoise shell or ivory: We are great supporters of protection for endangered species in our modern world. We never buy or sell anything 100 years or newer; we donate to anti-poaching organizations; we don't hunt; we conserve in ways that impact global warming (we're totally solar at home), knowing those measures also protect the animals in the wild today. We also recognize the vast cultural history we preserve with our care and reverence for these antique objects, and agree with CITES that objects over 100 years of age have nothing whatsoever to do with species depletion in our current world.
Our offering exceeds the age limitation of "more than 100 years of age", and is well within the exemption for CITES regulation. If imported, met the CITES regulation. This item will be handled and shipped from our Utah business, and is not available for shipment internationally, nor within the USA to California, NY, Nevada, Hawaii, New Jersey, Oregon, Washington if it contains ivory, sorry. Please see our small print for more details.
