Box of carved cherry wood (bois de Sainte Lucie), the lid hinged and with concave sides, the whole visible surface covered with intricate arabesque motifs.

The shallow body is covered with a hinged lid, which has a broad, concave frame rising from the shallow, vertical edge panels to support the flat central panel.

The box is covered all over with carved decoration. On the front, sides and back, the box and narrow edge of the lid are carved with recessed panels within plainly moulded frames. The carving on the box is of foliate scrolls with the heads of daisies or sunflowers; that on the sides of the lid shows similar flower heads only. All the carving is set against a dotted, punched, ground. The fine grain of the cherry wood allowed the pieces made in Nancy to imitate not only the shape of silver objects but also the fineness of their casting and chasing, in a material that was substantially less expensive, and more easily available than ivory or lacquer.

This box illustrates the skill with which the carvers imitated metalwork, both in the overall shape of the box, the arrangement of the ornament on the top in five sections, and in the hierarchy of carving, which showed some scrolls and foliage in high relief, and others just suggested by swift, but certain chisel strokes, imitating the similar hierarchy of decoration on silverwork, from high relief cast decoration to shallow chasing.