This box departs a little bit from my usual style, if I have one: the brief for this was that it should look 4000 years old and much travelled. It was designed to contain a wide variety of cut and uncut samples of lapis which, there is evidence to suggest, has been mined in Afghanistan for as long as 4000 years. It is made from birch plywood veneered with Macassar Ebony and then veneered again with wany edged burr yew to create the impression of wear and tear.