All twenty-six sides of this box are made of beautifully grained burl wood. Box has the rich honey & whiskey colour, wonderful patina of old wood. The top section is hinged and lifts to reveal a hollow interior - the perfect secret hiding place.
Item has been presumably produced by French in Morocco or Tunesia around 1920-1949.
Background information:
The shape of this box is called rhombicuboctahedron and it is found in diverse cultures in architecture, toys, the arts, and elsewhere - e.g.:
...it may also appear in the art. An example is the 1495 Portrait of Luca Pacioli, traditionally attributed to Jacopo de' Barbari, which includes a glass rhombicuboctahedron half-filled with water, which may have been painted by Leonardo da Vinci.
The first printed version of the rhombicuboctahedron was by Leonardo and appeared in Pacioli's Divina proportione (1509).
