Two-Bedroom Cricket Apartment

⟬ Smallbox Fortnight ⟭——07. Two-Bedroom Cricket Apartment

a modern Chinese cricket box, for taking your pet cricket out on the town.

not a puzzle, but comes apart like one (see last photo).

handmade from hardwood (species unknown) and acquired from someone who acquired it in Shanghai, though i'm not sure exactly when.

keeping crickets as pets goes back more than 2000 years in China, and hundreds of years elsewhere, although the typical cricket cage was larger and more open than this box. a box like this would be mainly for transport.

please do not put an actual cricket in this because that would be cruel.

i heard a story once about a man who kept a cricket in a little box.

but the cricket wouldn't chirp.

instead, for several nights, the man heard an odd whistling noise.

in the distance.

in the forest.

coming closer.

and closer.

each night.

one morning the man's friends arrived to see why they hadn't heard from him in a week.

upstairs, in his room, on his bedside table, they found an empty cricket box.

and in his bed, under the sheets, near the footboard, they found his feet.

the rest of him had been eaten by crickets.

you have been duly warned.

♫: 

—1. everything i have is in the photos.

—2. shipment is by USPS Priority Mail, insured for the full sale price and trackable.

—3. if the auction(s) in which you are the highest bidder have closed, and you are not bidding on other auctions, please let me know and i will organise the invoice. otherwise, shipping will be calculated after all auctions in this Fortnight are closed.

—4. payment is via PayPal only.

—5. all puzzles in my collection have been kept out of sunlight, in a humidity-stable room or sealed plastic container, away from pets unless they can solve them, and in a non-smoking household.

—6. the price for shipping+insurance will not exceed $30. if it costs more, i will pay the balance.

thank you for looking, and good luck if you bid.

:cameron: