I tend to think of these boxes as shadow theatres, so imagine my delight when I came across instructions on how to make one in the Mee Encyclopedia.  It didn’t say to do this, of course – it was more involved with card and paper cut-out shapes.  I am struck here by what Charles Simic wrote in Dime- Store Alchemy, his gorgeous ekphrastic book on Joseph Cornell: “In my childhood, toy shops sold miniature theatres made of cardboard…My own theatre did not come from a store.  It consisted of a few broken toy soldiers made of clay..and other objects…my stage was a table…there was little to do but imagine.’