I've had one other brilliantly colorful papered sewing box akin to this one, with stencil painted velvet pin cushion at center of the lid, and have come to understand how precious they are, c. 1820s-30s--this one reading Don't Forget Me, and but for a bit of loss to the red paint of the final E, pretty much perfectly preserved. I find the color just electric, and terrifically modern feeling too, with block printed pattern in silver decorating the rainbow colored painted paper. With great rope border around the velvet, and embossed gold foil trim around the perimeter of the lid, not even a bit lost. The pink and yellow papered interior remain crisp and brilliant too, with silk ribbon connecting lid to body of box such that it doesn't fall back. As lovely as they come, and I always find the survival of paper over cardboard boxes like this (about 200 years old) in such a condition quite miraculous.
(There is a closely related example in the collection of the Smithsonian Museum of American History, that one with the text on the pin cushion expressing support for the 1828 campaign of John Quincy Adams, which helps confirm the age.
5 1/4" x 4" x 2 1/2" t. Excellent condition.
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