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A vibrant and idiosyncratic example of 1930s American tramp art, this layered chip-carved box measures approximately 10 x 8 x 6 inches and is painted in a soft gradient of mint green and pink.
Tramp art is a vernacular American craft that flourished from the 1870s through the 1940s, transforming humble materials like cigar boxes and fruit crates into intricately carved expressions of devotion, patience, and ingenuity. Its hallmark techniques—chip carving and layered wood construction—produced boxes, frames, and small furnishings with geometric, architectural forms resembling ziggurats, stars, and beehives.
Most makers were self-taught, using simple hand tools and repurposed materials to create works that were deeply personal and profoundly inventive. Today, tramp art is celebrated as a proto–upcycling movement—an early expression of sustainability and resourcefulness long before those ideas entered the modern design lexicon. This painted example captures that spirit perfectly: authentic, expressive, and unmistakably handmade.
Very good, vintage condition with wear consistent with age / use.