I really love antique French book boxes, with a large section of pages adhered and carved out to create a secret compartment for stashing secret things. I don't come across them often--but had been actively looking for one (seems to me now is a useful time to get a chunk of emergency cash out of the bank and stash it somewhere safe) when I found this one in a great antiques shop near Albany. And its a great one, in beautiful condition, and with very beautiful marbled end papers and lining to the chamber--and with marbling to to the edges of the pages too, visible from the sides. But what really makes it for me is that the book itself is a 1785 copy of the third volume of Homer's The Odyssey--the sort of iconic and resonant on so many levels book that one might choose to take to a desert island (teaching oneself French at the same time), and just to right sort in which to keep, if not money, one's most hard-won treasures.
8 x 5 5/16 x 1 and in very good very antique condition. General expected wear to the book itself but very sound and sturdy. Curiously, at some point someone wrote "baseball" on the title page--perhaps a reminder of prized baseball cards stashed inside!--and there is one stray graphite mark on the book page opposite the secret chamber., all as documented.
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