Antique Black Americana Happy Youth Eating Watermelon atop Porcelain Trunk c1900

Description

Offered is a vintage ca 1900 porcelain lidded majolica painted figural trunk box that measures 5.5" wide x 3.5" wide x 6.5" high. The lid of the box has a nicely molded figure of a reclining African American young man with peaked yellow hat smiling while taking a bite of a large watermelon slice.  The lid has no flaws excepting a few light paint rubs.  The bottom of the trunk box has a vintage repair on one side, a hairline on interior front with crackling in glaze. The trunk box's black paint has minor rubs.The base of the box retains its old original paper sticker with "From Sauter's Broadway House Furnishing Store, 1355 Boradway, Near Gates Avenue, Brooklyn."  There are numbers and letters impressed in the porcelain that are covered by the label.  The bottom edges retain old gauze tape to a protect table top.  Origin and maker unknown, estimate ca 1900.