Jewellery Boxes & Trinket Dishes

What the jewellery box range covers

Three kinds of thing sit on this page, and they answer three different problems. A jewellery box is closed storage: a lid, often compartments, and somewhere for pieces to live out of the light and out of the dust. A trinket dish or tray is open storage, for the ring that comes off at the sink and the earrings taken out at the end of the day, where the point is that nothing has to be opened. A jewellery stand holds chains and bracelets hanging, which is the one arrangement that stops them knotting. Most dressing tables end up with more than one of the three, because the pieces worn daily and the pieces kept for occasions want different treatment.

Glass, brass, mango wood and marble

Glass and brass is the most common pairing here: upright panes held in a brass frame, often with a glass base, so the contents stay visible without the lid being lifted. The brass is usually given an antique finish, which reads warm and slightly darkened rather than bright. Mango wood boxes are solid and opaque, sometimes with a glass panel set into the lid, and they feel heavier in the hand. Marble appears as lidded boxes and as flat trays, cut from stone with its own veining, so no two pieces carry the same markings. Ceramic covers some of the smaller dishes, a few of them textured. Each material is doing the same job in a different register, so the choice is mostly about what the rest of a dressing table looks like.

Boxes, dishes, trays and stands

Choosing between them comes down to what is being put away. A lidded box with compartments suits a mixed assortment where small pieces would otherwise end up tangled together, and it is the right answer for anything with a clasp. A shallow dish or tray suits the handful of pieces worn most days, because reaching into an open dish is faster than opening a box, and it keeps a ring off the edge of a basin. A stand suits chains, pendants and bangles, which store badly flat and well hanging. A vanity tray does a slightly different job again, corralling perfume bottles and small pots as well as jewellery.

Sizing a box to what you own

The common mistake is buying for what is owned now rather than for what will be owned in five years. Measure the longest chain, because a box too shallow to lay one flat will crease it into a corner. Count the pieces that need to be kept apart, which is what decides whether compartments matter or a single open bay is enough. Check the footprint against the surface it will stand on: a dressing table shared with a lamp and a mirror has less room than it looks. Where a box is wall hung, the depth matters more than the width, because it sits proud of the wall and is read from the side. Dimensions are given on each product page.

Keeping chains from tangling

Tangling is the problem most people are actually trying to solve. Chains knot when they are free to move and free to cross, so the fix is to limit one or the other. Hanging a chain on a stand removes the movement. Laying it flat in its own compartment removes the crossing. A single open dish does neither, which is why it suits rings, studs and cufflinks better than necklaces. If a box has one large bay, fastening each clasp before it goes in stops a chain from threading itself through its neighbours. Keeping the pieces worn daily in a dish by the basin, and the rest in a box, cuts the handling that causes most knots in the first place.

Looking after glass, brass, wood and marble

None of these materials asks for much, but they ask for different things. Glass panes clean up with a soft cloth, used dry or barely damp, in a circular motion. Brass frames should be kept away from abrasive cleaners and chemical polishes, which strip an antique finish rather than restore it; a dry cloth is usually enough, and a darkening brass is doing what brass does. Mango wood should be kept out of direct heat and off a wet surface, and wiped rather than washed. Marble is porous, so standing water and anything acidic are the two things to avoid, and a spill is best lifted straight away rather than left. Ceramic dishes take a damp cloth. The care notes on each product page have the final word.

Where a jewellery box earns its place

A dressing table is the obvious home, but it is not the only one. A box on a chest of drawers keeps a bedroom tidy without adding furniture. A small dish on a bedside table catches a watch and a ring at the end of the day. A tray beside a bathroom basin stops rings disappearing down a plughole, and a wall hung box frees a surface entirely in a room where there is no spare one. Boxes in glass and brass read as objects in their own right, so they sit comfortably in the open rather than needing to be put away. Free delivery worldwide on all orders over £99.