Beautiful Antique Carved Heart Shaped Box, Ex. "Smitty" Axtell Collection small bowls There are four small tears

There are four small tears long ago repaired with clear tape from the backside

darker on one side toward the tail

but I did recently find a seller with a nice bunch of them all by a N

and to my eye beautifully merges a mid-century elegance with a more folky sensibility

Beautiful Antique Carved Heart Shaped Box, Ex. "Smitty" Axtell Collection small bowls There are four small tearsI know this beautiful little carved box came from the collection of Richard Smitty Axtell (Skinner recently held an auction of many pieces from his collection in "Smitty's Eye: The Axtell Collection") of Deposit, New York, whose collection focused on American antiques especially burl and other woodenware. This looks like burl to me, and beautifully carved, with bat wing like points to the heart on the exterior, but then a rounded heart carved out