A container in which to keep personal adornments worn for ornament or utility.
Can be made of wood, papier-mache, porcelain, celluloid, Swarovski crystal, silver (or other metal), plastic, fashioned from a goose egg, lacquered, decoupaged, inlaid with Egyptian Mother-of-Pearl, antique or antiqued, decorated with a cross or Star of David, encrusted with seashells, or ebonized (covered in black enamel)...
Usually a rectangular box, also available heart shaped, hexagonal, or pyramid shaped, as a puzzle box or chest of drawers, as a combination jewelry box/ humidor, jewelry box/ home safe, or jewelry box / cremation urn (really: www.urnsmart.com/cgi-local/shop.pl/page=ajewelryurns.html) ; it could be that shoebox-sized cedar box you got free from Lane Furniture (the hope chest people) when you graduated from high school, or that pasteboard, dancing ballerina music box with red velvet lining, a mirror inside the lid, and a drawer underneath that you've had since you were six...
There are also men's jewelry boxes available.
A jewelry box is a repository for nostalgia, an arsenal of personal symbols, a time capsule. It contains "good" jewelry--the inherited pieces, your great-grandmother's wedding ring, special gifts, diamonds and emeralds and sapphires (oh my!)--and the not so good "costume" stuff. It contains mementos from different eras of personal fashion--pukka shell necklaces, huge dangly 80's earrings, Buddhist prayer beads (or the fancy rosary, or both), plastic love beads, all manner of shiny things, stuff your kids made for you. You're going to need a bigger box. Your grandkids are going to love pawing through your treasures someday. There's stuff in there that's not even jewelry--foreign coins, your social security card, love notes... It's up to you. Her jewelry box is where my mom keeps our baby teeth.
Thanks, as always, to the Google search engine. And to www.encyclopedia.com for the definition of jewelry.
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