French handpainted Limoges porcelain box with antique brass trim. The cross word puzzle dates back to the 1920's in England and in the USA it initiated with Arthur Wynne who was a writer for the game page of the New York World . One winter afternoon in 1913, while trying to think up new types of games for the newspaper’s special Christmas edition, he came up with a way to adapt the "word squares" his grandfather had taught him when he was a boy. In a word square, all of the words in the square have to read the same horizontally and vertically.
1 1/4"square, 1/2"H.
From Limoges, France.