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It's lunchtime all the time for collectors of lunch boxes and pails. Such metal or tin containers made to hold the noon meal have been produced in a variety of shapes, sizes and types. Some 19th Century examples were patented.

Because of years of wear and tear, patent dates on such containers are often faint or partially obliterated. It's a good idea to scan both the surface and interior of such pieces with a strong magnifying glass.

Especially interesting are folding lunch boxes. Some examples were designed to fold flat, while others were telescopic types made with a series of graduated containers that fit down into each other to make the piece compact. The full containers were hooked onto each other and the piece was carried by a hinged handle that was made to fold up or down.

A nifty type of telescopic container was Elhe's Nestable Dinner Pail, which was patented on Feb. 26, 1884, and on June 26, 1888. The box, manufactured by F.G.O. Elhe & Co. of Buffalo, N.Y., contained four compartments and a cup designed to fit into one of them.

Another interesting lunch box, stamped with an 1881 patent date, was shaped something like a purse and was designed to taper at the bottom and flare out at the top. Its hinged, dome-shaped cover had a thin wire handle and an attached tin strap.

Lunch buckets and boxes can be found in a variety of shapes: oblong, rectangular, square, round, cylindrical and can- shaped. Some were fitted with a pie tray, drinking cup, coffee flask or vacuum bottle. Those made for miners were cylindrical and were made with inset round compartments and strong riveted ears to which strong wire bail handles with wooden grips were attached.

If you're contemplating collecting such decorated lunch boxes, you can learn more about them by subscribing to the Paileontologist's Retort, a publication available for $10 per year from 3608 Chelwood N.E., Albuquerque, N.M. 87111.

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