Deed Box

Schmuckkastchen, or small decorative boxes were traditional gifts in Germanic Europe and within the Pennsylvania German community.  They were used to hold small textile accessories, ribbons, trinkets, and personal keepsakes, as well as important documents. The owner’s name or initials was often painted on the flat-top boxes for identification or to mark a special presentation or event such as a marriage. 

A number of these boxes have survived, all similarly constructed of thinly milled pine, cedar, or poplar often with fine dovetailed corner joinery, pinned bottom and top boards and decorative hinges and hasps, and decorated with distemper paints.  They include dome-top and flat-top versions or sometimes an oval band-box or bride’s box form. 

The maker of the boxes decorated in this distinctive palette with a black background and boldly painted tulips in red and green foliage remains unknown.  Previously attributed to the shop of Heinrich Bucher of Lancaster County due to an inscription of his name on one known box, it has recently been determined that Bucher was most likely the recipient of the box rather than the maker.  Compared to other American-made painted boxes, the decorator of this group of boxes was influenced by European examples, particularly from the region of Alsace-Lorraine.