This box was catalogued and photographed by Jo Livingston who also created the website entries.
The categories of cosmetics and hair care have their own boxes, which leaves Box B3 with a mixed assortment. It is dominated by nail care, but also includes several purses, some compacts, lots of button hooks, some shoehorns, a fan, a couple of razors, and even a nose shield to avoid sunburn!
As far as can be ascertained, through research and comparing pictures, the items are mainly mid to late twentieth century.
For the nail care items, there was very little development over time in the tools themselves, but the handles reflect changes in taste and materials.
Arguably the most significant change was the introduction of powered nailcare tools in the 1970s.
Many of the items are no longer commonly used: button hooks have long since become redundant, presumably once zips became the norm; powder compacts, and the powder concealer they contained, have largely been superseded by tubes of concealing creams; and purses designed for coins are less needed now with the move away from cash to digital payments.
Nail care tools have remained very similar over several centuries, with earlier ones being made by hand from natural materials, rather than mass manufactured.
The very early ones from ancient civilisations were of bone, ivory, and precious metals, indicating the high status of the owners.
However, by the nineteenth century mass production made these objects more available to the masses, and the by mid to late twentieth century, plastic and other synthetic materials made the items even cheaper and more accessible.