puzzle box

{{Short description|Box that can be opened only by solving a puzzle}}

{{refimprove|date=June 2009}}

{{Full citations needed|date=January 2025}}

File:Yosegi 3.jpg

File:Yosegi 5.jpg

A puzzle box (also called a secret box or trick box) is a box that can be opened only by solving a puzzle. Some require only a simple move and others a series of discoveries.

Modern puzzle boxes developed from furniture and jewelry boxes with secret compartments and hidden openings, known since the Renaissance. Puzzle boxes produced for entertainment first appeared in Victorian England in the 19th century{{cite book |author=Hoffman, P |year=1893 |title= Puzzles Old and New |publisher=Warne |location=London |ol=25200228M}}{{cite book |author1=Sanders, W. |author2=Sanders, C. |year=1999 |title=Pocket Matchsafes: Reflections of Life & Art |publisher=Schiffer |location=Atglen}} and as tourist souvenirs in the Interlaken region in Switzerland{{cite book |author1=Arenski, J. |author2=Daniels, S. |author3=Daniels, M. |year=2005 |title=Swiss Carvings 1820-1940 |publisher=Antique Collectors Club |location=Woodbridge}} Provides details of the Swiss carving tradition but does not cover trick boxes. and in the Hakone region of Japan at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century.{{cite book |author=Iwasaki, S. |year=2003 |title=Karakuri works in Hakone & Odawara |publisher=Karakuri Creation Group |location=Odawara}} Boxes with secret openings appeared as souvenirs at other tourist destinations during the early 20th century, including the Amalfi Coast, Madeira, and Sri Lanka,{{cite journal |author=Hajek, P. |title=Madeira puzzle boxes |journal=CFF |volume=75 |year=2008 |pages=3–6}}{{cite journal |author=Hajek, P. |title=Sri Lanka carvings with secret compartments |journal=CFF |volume=89 |year=2012 |pages=21–23}} though these were mostly 'one-trick' traditions. Chinese cricket boxes represent another example of intricate boxes with secret openings.{{cite journal |author=Hajek, P. |title= Chinese cricket boxes with secret opening |journal=CFF |volume=85 |year=2011 |pages=31–34}}

Interest in puzzle boxes subsided during and after the two World Wars. The art was revived in the 1980s by three pioneers of this genre: Akio Kamei in Japan,{{cite book |author=Yoshigahara, N. |year=1995 |title=Akio Kamei Art Works |publisher=Karakuri}} Trevor Wood in England, and Frank Chambers in Ireland.{{cite journal |author=Hajek, P. |title=Frank Chambers: Obituary |journal=IPP |volume=27 |year=2008 |pages=123}} There are currently a number of artists producing puzzle boxes, including the Karakuri group in Japan set up by Akio Kamei,{{cite book |editor=Karakuri Creation Group |year=2008 |title=Evolving Karakuri Box |publisher=Karakuri Creation Group |location=Odawara}} US puzzle box specialists Robert Yarger and Kagen Sound, as well as a number of other designers and puzzle makers who produce puzzle boxes across the globe. {{cite book |author=Hajek, P. |year=2021 |title=Enter If You Can: The Art Of Puzzle Boxes |publisher=Artemis Press |location=London}}

Clive Barker's horror novella The Hellbound Heart (later adapted into a film, Hellraiser, followed by numerous original sequels) centers on the fictional Lemarchand's box, a puzzle box which opens the gates to another dimension when manipulated.