That’s funny Zenster, but I think she means my general love of boxes. I have a lot of different ones, both wood and metal. I got rid of all but the most rare Lane boxes during my last move, they make great cheap presents for teenagers. Girls like them to keep jewelery and other girly stuff, and guys use them I guess to store stuff that their parents don’t know about.
I have three boxes.
- A simple design wooden jewelry box with intricate inlay wood detail made for my grandma for her birthday when she was a girl by her older brother. She was born in 1890, so that gives a good clue on its age.
- A large cedar chest that has been passed down in the women in the family in a cross family matter. It use to belong to my mom, who got it from her Mother in Law, who got it from her mother who got it from her mother and before that and its exact origins are not exactly clear. All received it as a wedding present.
My mom’s MIL married back in 1921. so this thing is quite old and in great shape except for a cracked lid and the paint job that I requested my mom do for it. She did a great job, but…gah…10 years later…it’s a little dated.
3. Lastly, Mr. Ujest and his Best Friend Chuck, we goofing around at Chuck’s house and decided in a moment of delusion, to ask chuck’s dad ( a master wood worker) to show them how to make something so that they could give it to their girlfriends.
That Christmas I received a very nicely done jewelry box that is musical. the only fault with the entire job, though excellent for a first/only time effort, is that the hole for where the winder is on the music box key is very small and a pain to wind. I keep this filled with all the special trinkets of life.
Oh, and one more.
- When we married, our two close friends wanted to give us a special wedding present. Leslie and ken ( whom are not married to each other because they would be late for their own wedding and funereal.) are two of the nicest people you could ever meet and also two of the biggest procrastinators on the planet.
8 years after our wedding, they found that special gift. One of those puzzle box thingies that is just amazing to look at the detail involved. I told them that they will receive a thank you in 8 years. I’ve got six years left to write it 
Zenster In your quest for the ultimate cigar box collection, is there any brand/kind that you are really on the look out for? If so, why?
I gave the Wifestrocity an antique Korean jewelry box in 1987. It’s over 100 years old, and is very beautiful. Amongst the many wooden boxes we have around the house, this is hands down the nicest.
I have two boxes in my home which I love dearly.
My parents gave me a cedar hope chest with a velvet cushion set into the top for my 16th birthday. It was a rough year for me, and that hope chest screams “we love you” every time I look at it. Even 16 years later.
My grandmother was a gifted needleworker and sempstress in her spare time. She had a workbox on legs, about 20" tall excluding the handle, which had three layers of boxes on a set of diagonal hinges like this in design, although hers is of mixed woods and has dents and teeth marks in it. (Grandma, what’s that story?) I inherited it for my cross-stitch supplies, which keep it from closing properly.
The cat finds this fascinating, all that coloured string in a peek-a-boo box!
When I was really young, my parents gave me Japanese box, about 5 x 7 x 3 with lovely inlay work on all sides. The large side is a scenic view across a river towards a mountain, and the reverse is two little dogs, one black, one white, similar to Scotties.
Working sliding panels on one end, the top slides to open a main compartment. Then, the opposing end can be raised, revealing a small flat drawer with a bird inlay on the cover, creating musical sounds when the drawer is extended.
I have a cigarette box from Pakistan; it is wooden with (not cool) ivory inlay in an intricate vine pattern. The cool part is that it stores all your cigarettes. When you lift the box up a cigarette pops up from the top of the box in this indented slit. I don’t know how old the box is though.