Stories Collected While Living in France

French la Vie

Box of Treasures

                 Aboxoftreasures

At the flea market I often see forgotten treasure boxes. Collection of memories in the form of bits and pieces. The boxes are not golden, nor crested in jewels. Often the treasure boxs are made of tin, and the collected items, seem like dabs of color in a still life painting.

Do you see the small black box in the right-hand corner? What do you think it is? I wished I had opened it. I think it is a lighter. If you could take something from this box, would you? What would it be?

Life is a box full of treasures waiting to be discovered…

photo: Last Sunday’s treasure box. I did not buy it, nor anything inside. Though, I did take a few photos of it, and I had a conversation with the man who owned it.

Comments

46 responses to “Box of Treasures”

  1. Violette

    Bonjour !
    Super trésor, j’aimerais bien fouiller dedans. Je crois que le peigne et l’objet en tissage de perles (est-ce bien cela ?)auraient mes faveurs.
    La dernière boite que j’ai achetée sur une brocante contenait des dentelles, de quoi s’évanouir de bonheur !!!
    Thanks for sharing Corey.

    Reply
  2. Jeanne

    I am not sure what that little box is for……..please tell me if you find out.
    I love all of your treasure troves.
    Love Jeanne

    Reply
  3. naturegirl

    That blk. box looks like a wallet but you’re closer!I like the looks of the brown thingy the pattern is interesting..there are two of them!I never have the patience to go through displays such as this when shopping but I suppose we all see things differently.hugs NG

    Reply
  4. tut-tut

    It looks like opera glasses in their case, but if it’s small enough to be a lighter, then that can’t be it. Love that link! I’ll try to be more attentive in all things.

    Reply
  5. ParisBreakfasts

    Right now I’m painting the blue and white china cup you found hidden in a box in the Paris flea.
    Why o’ why didn’t I go with you to the flea?
    I ask myself that over and over.
    Like your black pandora’s box you didn’t open – the things we pass by and can’t forget, reverberate in our memory like a lost song.

    Reply
  6. Nora

    I’d want the turquoise beads either side of that black box, and a pearl or two (near the hair clip).

    Reply
  7. Shannon

    Ha! The first item I zoned in on right away was the little black box. I would’ve opened that right away.
    I would’ve pushed things aside to see what was underneath.
    I wonder how much he would’ve wanted for the whole thing.

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  8. Anastasia

    i love going through boxes at flea stalls! you just never know what you’ll find…the round lace metal ornaments look interesting – I wonder if they smelt beautiful once?

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  9. patpaulk

    What? no golf balls and tees?? Obviously not a man’s box of treasures. But, I’d take the pearls to give to a pretty lady I know…

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  10. constance

    Nice treasure box.
    Depending on the price, I might have taken it home with me. Millinery flowers, buttons and ribbons are my weekness. Keri’s’s words are right on too!

    Reply
  11. ana rose

    I would have picked the round bronze fretworked ornament which looks as though it could be a pomander. the little black box looks like it could contain opera glasses.

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  12. sheila

    I spy a pin, perhaps it is a brooch, made to look like hands clasping a cord. It is black, ebony maybe..?
    Whose lapel, or hair did it adorn ?
    Was it for mourning, or just stylishly sombre?

    Reply
  13. Catalina

    the little box is a book: a journal of Mandy, a little girl who couldn’t go out and dream about far landscapes and adventures

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  14. Catalina

    oh! and I would take the little journal of course and the little gold wings at the bottom left. They go together…

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  15. Star

    I have no guess on the black box but it could very well be the lighter you suggested. If I were to select something from this box, I’d probably take the decorative hair comb or the large jingle bells.
    Such restraint not to make a selection of your own 😉

    Reply
  16. Elaine

    I don’t think that I could take anything from it. Each treasure looks as if they’ve been together a very long time. They formed a bridge from being young and carefree to old, wise and rich with memories. Perhaps I could take a glimpse of what one of those memories might be…… Your stories have become part of my treasure box.

    Reply
  17. martina

    I’d ask for a good price for the whole box of treasures. After getting home would make a cup of tea and look through the items and imagine the stories and maybe arrange them in a shadow box or as a tablescape.

    Reply
  18. cruststation

    Mmm….so tempting! I love the round locket/pendant pieces and the ball pendant, is it a turquoise necklace? beautiful 🙂

    Reply
  19. shabbyinthecity

    I think the black box is a wee camera which I have run across before. I would take the millinery and not look back!

    Reply
  20. ally bean

    While I tend to agree with you I have to admit that it occurs to me that a more cynical person might look at that photo and suggest that life is just a box of junk!!
    😉

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  21. AnnieElf

    I would most definitely select the gold wings.

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  22. Lisa

    ahhh the lovely blue beads are crying out to me!

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  23. cheeky

    I would like that dark, almost black, looks like a gloved hand; seems to curve around but I can’t tell for sure. I like the hand, reminds of a beautiful vintage necklace I own and the clasp looks like that, only a much smaller version.
    Next: The bauble-like, hollow, carved design, goldish, perhaps made of metal; there are two of them. Haven’t the faintest what they are but they would look lovely on my tree at Christmas with the lights putting a twinkle on them.
    I chose three items, oh, I got a bit greedy there!

    Reply
  24. Di Overton

    Whatever those Filigree things are my names on them.
    What a wonderful box of treasures. Thanks for showing them Corey.

    Reply
  25. Veronica TM

    this box had so much to say! i would take the flowers, beautiful, faded and with secrets.

    Reply
  26. Paula

    I would definately take the gold wings. The golden wings of my angel, my little kittie “Sophie” who died last Friday. I know that her soul is flying on golden wings through the stardust.

    Reply
  27. carlene

    I’m adding “Going to a Paris flea market with Cory” to my 100 Things To Do In My Lifetime list!

    Reply
  28. tommiea

    I would pick up the little purple thing on the left hand side….my little girl adores purple…perhaps it is a little coin purse she can carry her trinkets around in.

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  29. nel

    It all looks so amazing together I would have to buy the whole lot and find a special corner in my home to display it just as it is!

    Reply
  30. Colette

    I was flea marketing yesterday, but I can never get enough… I love going through treasure boxes, and I would choose the old flowers/leaves, and if there were an old, even broken, rosary, I would take that too. xx

    Reply
  31. Cat

    I’m torn between the gold wings and the lacey looking metal(?) things. I am so drawn to a potpouri of treasures like this.

    Reply
  32. BOSSY

    Bossy would take the hair comb because she needs at least that and maybe a tractor to make her hair comply.

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  33. Candy

    The gold wings – no doubt about it. What is it about those things anyway? Maybe they’re magical and when pinned on in just the right place they enable their owner to fly.

    Reply
  34. Lisa Oceandreamer

    Truthfully depending on the price I would have wanted the entire box. To take home and sit quietly going through the contents…imagining…thinking how I could use any of the items in art. I am curious about the hand holding the flower and the round filigreed I’m not sure what they are.
    You find the best stuff!
    XOXO

    Reply
  35. Beachy

    Ooooh I just love treasure boxes! If I had my choice, I think I would take the pearly baubles I see wrapped around the goodies. =) Then again, it is just nice to look at everything and dream about what I’d do with them!

    Reply
  36. Southern Heart

    I love this post…that is my approach to life, too (makes it a lot more fun!).

    Reply
  37. Blue

    I think, since you ask…I would choose the golden wings at the left.
    I for some reason, think that I am here to earn them.
    You, have already earned yours, with your thought provoking posts. I am also drawn to the leaf.
    I love how you include the reader…amazing.
    Thanks for the link. I learned a few years ago while training to run a half marathon, that everything breathes, lives, and feels. Sentient beings we all are, be us animate or inanimate.
    xo

    Reply
  38. Deryn Mentock

    I would dig through the box until I could find the relationship between the treasures and their owner…find her story. That’s what I would take!

    Reply
  39. Marie-Noëlle

    I’m not an antique lover, I’m afraid… Had I been by myself I would have probably walked past the box without seeing it !
    Now as you have pointed to it, I can stop by and pick that little pin: the hand holding the little bunch of flowers. Very delicate. Very meaningful.
    And I would ask you to give it to Shelley when you next meet her.

    Reply
  40. Lauren Mumford

    You do this just to torture me don’t you?

    Reply
  41. Alison Whittington

    Yep, I’d take it all, too.
    But definitely the hand. I love the hand.
    I have a treasure box like that. Most of its contents would be silly little things to other people, but to me, they are filled with magic.

    Reply
  42. angela marie

    I would have to say the black hand holding the flowers… it is the first thing that stood out to me. I have a collection of hands.
    This has made me think about my many treaure boxes I have sitting around and tucked away.. what will happen to them when I am gone? I am sure my daughter will not want everything that I have.

    Reply
  43. wendy

    Oh my…well with all this “fairy bell” stuff going on for me i think I’d wish oh wish for the little bell on th upper left : )
    What treasures you find Corey…
    A Blessed Week <>< Wendy

    Reply
  44. karla nathan

    Sometimes it is as nice to imagine what you might have found in the little box not looked into, as it is to actually own it.

    Reply
  45. Irene

    I have mixed feelings about treasure boxes. I am sad when I recall my grand mother’s or my mother’s. Boxes of dreams mostly unfulfilled.
    On the other hand, I like to imagine that other people’s boxes might hold happy memories.
    Anyway, I like this game, so I’ll say, I’d buy the pair of wings to the left. A brooch perhaps, or a beloved avaitor’s wings…
    And then a little bronze button among the turquoise beads. A button, or part of an embroidery. It must make a noise when you move. 40s, perhaps?

    Reply
  46. Lea

    Beautiful picture! Those round, metallic filigree thingies look interesting… 🙂

    Reply

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