The box was fitted with movable joints made of brass, as well the five cases of different size inside. All joints are hobnailed. The joint of the box has resolved on the bottom, the plastic is not damaged. It can be easily repaired. Each case close properly.

Measures: W. 8,5” x 5,5” x H. 1,2 inch.

_{State: good. Tracks of use related to age.}

The material, the design of the box and the constructive formation of the cases suggest, that the box is a work at the end of the 1920s. The manufacturer is unknown, but the following can be told on the history of the used resin.

Already after the first World War worldwide chemists begun to work at possibilities, to produce the Bakelite in a large and bright colour range. The original one was found in 1907 by the Belgian chemist Leo Hendrik Baekeland. But his bakelite could be used just in dark tones, brown, almost black, a dark red and green.
1920 the german company Raschig in Ludwigshafen developed a cast phenolic resin. It was a very noble resin which had to be treated in a complex and costly procedure. The raw material was cast in handmade forms of lead, glass or brass without fillers. These forms just could be used one time. The yellow translucent mass had to dry without pressure three days in a furnace by temperatures of 60 to 100 °C.
The result was a very nice, relatively resistant and brilliant material, which could be stained in all colours. Later the piece was polished until the surface shined like amber. Boxes, casket, cases, equipments for offices and smoking items, as well as jewellery were offered preferred in refined shades, particularly in the natural range of the colours of amber. All moldings were nailed, or screwed, but not bonded.

After 1924 the urea resin, which constituted a full substitute for the original Bakelite, replaces more and more this phenolic resin. Because Baekeland brought all the key patents for producing the new resins, the naming "Bakelite" stayed the common word for all infusible and insoluble plastics.

Presently in: Exhibition "Bakelit 100" Kunststoff aus Erkner erobert die Welt
20.11.-22.12.2009 im Rathaus Erkner, in Erkner bei Berlin. Ab 3.12.09 bis 7.1.2010 in der Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung(BAM)
Unter den Eichen 87, Haus 5, 12205 Berlin.
Cp. furthermore: Sammler Journal Issue December 2009 und January 2010.

Cp. Bowl, Bakelite, Brooks & Adams „Bandalasta“, urea resin, 1927.