pull-off boxes (Q1427)

Rectangular or book-shaped boxes divided into two parts, one of which has a rigid lining which projects beyond its cut edge and over which the other half fits. They can be cut either vertically, to make a horizontal pull-off box, or horizontally, to make a vertical pull-off box, and were often covered in leather with gold tooled ‘spines’ with false bands. They were often used for expensively-bound liturgica from the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century.