A double curved jewellery box 13" x 9" x 5" veneered with a dramatically figured burr walnut with plenty of contrast between the sap and the heart wood. The front and lid are book matched and decorated with a traditional black and white line and all edges are finished with fine boxwood squares. There is a mother of pearl escutcheon and a central satinwood oval in the lid.

The interior is fitted out with two trays in cocobolo and is lined throughout with red velvet and moiree. It is fitted with good quality brass quadrant hinges and lock and the exterior is french polished.

As it happens, this box was stolen. I had sent it to an exhibition of a sort in the Midlands, and they had duly sent it back to me. Nothing arrived for some considerable time and, despite the fact that the gallery said they had sent it a week or so before nothing continued to arrive. So, I contacted the local sorting office in Willesden and they said that a package fitting the description had been collected a week earlier. By me.

Evidently, someone had walked into the postroom at the workshops and picked up a card left in my pigeon hole by the postman telling me there was a parcel at the sorting office. The duty officer had apparently not required any further identification from this person other than their ability to scrawl something that looked vaguely like 'A Crawford' on a card.

The Post Office eventually admitted that they should have required more ID, accepted full liability and paid over the full value of the box.

So - you are looking at stolen property. I never saw it again, of course - so, if you see this box, and the riotous walnut is pretty distinctive, don't buy a used car from the owner!

And let me know, too.