The chameleon flower jewelry box open on a burr walnut dressing table with pearls and gold earrings

Jewelry boxes, October

The jewelry boxes we would keep for ourselves

Every shipment from KwaZulu-Natal brings us more jewelry boxes than anything else, and we go through all of them the same way: lid off, turned in the hand, seen from every side. Most are beautiful. A few we would put on our own dressing table.

These are the few. Each one was sculpted by one artist and painted by another, and each one is the only one. Once it leaves the gallery, there is no second one to send.

What we look for

Ed Pascoe has been choosing pieces for the gallery since 1969. These are his words, walking through the jewelry boxes with us.

The wild dog jewelry box seen from the side

Pretty from every side

“Is it pleasing to the eye, first of all? Whichever side you look at it from, it should be beautiful.”

The wild dog stands square on its lid from the front, the back and both flanks, the way Teboho Ndlovu sculpted it to be walked around. Samkelo Gumede painted the coat patch by patch. The wild dog

The parrot jewelry box seen from the side

Color that pulls and still belongs

“Contrasting and complementary.”

On the parrot, Samkelo Gumede set blue feathers over a band of green leaves. They pull against each other and still belong together, which is exactly what Ed looks for. The parrot

The protea and bird jewelry box with its lid lifted off

A lid you cannot find

“You can't see where the lid joins the base. It shows skill, creativity.”

On the protea boxes the lid is the top of the flower. Lift the weaver bird and a crown of bracts comes away with it. Nathi Msomi sculpted it, Jabu Nene dotted every bract. The protea and bird