Thuya wood boxes are cut and inlaid by hand in the marquetry workshops of Essaouira, from the burl of the thuya tree, with lemon wood, ebony and mother of pearl. No two grains are alike, so no two boxes are the same — for jewellery, keepsakes, tea, or simply to set on a shelf.
Thuya wood, not cedar
Our boxes are cut from the burl of the Barbary thuya (Tetraclinis articulata), a conifer of the cypress family that grows at low altitude in the coastal forests and dunes around Essaouira. It is often confused with cedar, but the Atlas cedar (Cedrus atlantica) belongs to the pine family and grows high in the Middle Atlas, High Atlas and Rif mountains, between 1,500 and 2,500 m. In North America the word “cedar” is also commonly used for thuyas — eastern white cedar is in fact a thuya. Both woods are fragrant, but only thuya burl gives the speckled, swirling grain you see on these boxes.
Selected by TUYYA, a Moroccan store in Montréal since 2007. See also our Moroccan home décor, our market baskets and our Moroccan teapots.
