Images(14)

Painted Box

Date1922-1928

Artist John Orne Johnson Frost (1852-1928)

OriginAmerica, Massachusetts, Marblehead

MediumPine, paint, fabric, and metal

DimensionsOH: 6 3/4": OW: 10 1/2": 14 1/8" OH: 17.1 cm; OW: 26.7 cm; OD: 35.9cm

Credit LinePartial gift of Deane Billings, and Edward R. Carroll, Jr.

Object number2002.708.2

DescriptionRectangular box lined with printed cotton fabric, painted on four sides plus top. Top is hinged 1 3/4 in. from rear of box with wire hinges. Label printed directly on interior of box lid: "For a Delicious Breakfast/Or Tea Try...../CREAMED FISH ON TOAST/MADE FROM/SH[UT]E & MERCHAN[T]'S /[O]LD WEDGE BRAND/FIB[E]RED CODF[I]SH/CAN'T B BEAT." Interior of box, except lid, lined with cotton fabric printed with pattern of "v" and dots. Fabric was probably glued in after box was painted since the paint goes over the edges and sides of the box and there is no paint on the fabric.

Four exterior sides and top of box are painted with various scenes including on the top, a Schooner with American flag sailing in the ocean off a point or neck of land with a lighthouse.

Label TextThis box, painted by John Orne Johnson Frost between 1922 and 1928, depicts a sailboat on the top and four houses dated 1740, 1760, 1775, and 1840 on the sides. These houses may have been located in Marblehead, Massachusetts, where Frost was living at the time.
ProvenanceThe owners' mother operated an antiques business from the time of her graduation from Abbott Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, in 1931, until her marriage in 1941. From 1942-1952, she and her husband lived at 31 High Street in Marblehead and in 1952 began looking for a new house in Marblehead. They looked at the Frost home on Pond Street (Mrs. Billings distinctly remembers being in the house), which had come on the market because Frost's daughter-in-law was by then in a nursing home, but decided not to buy it because of the amount of renovation required (they ended up buying a house at 30 High Street, across the street from their then-current house). Mrs. Billings remembers the box being in her mother's possession before 1952, however, and is positive that her mother acquired it before her parents considered buying the Frost home.