RARE Antique French Papier Mache Card Gaming Box, Ivory Gambling Chips, Mother of Pearl

What a rare treat!  Mid-1800s French papier maché gaming box, chest, with its inlays of mother of pearl and nearly all of the original overpainting still on the original form. A superb 11.5" x 11" box with serpentine outer form which is remarkably unscathed by time. You'll note only one spot of damage which is a chipped corner of the bottom half of the box. Inside can be found the original gambling chips, "jeton", and the spaces for the playing cards, while they don't hold an original set of 1850s playing cards, does have 2 decks of new cards - a ready to enjoy beauty. Full measurements noted on photos.  Very good to excellent condition for age and type. More typically with the Victorian or Napoleon III era (c.1850-70s) papier mache, you'll have losses, breaks, losses to most of the fragile outcroppings. To have a box in this material and elaborate designed body, perimeter, it is amazing to find only a very small chip to one of those corners. A bottom one, at that, so easily out of sig