Stanley made several different types of pasteboard boxes through the year. As you can imagine, some of them faired better than others. The corners will commonly be ripped out, and they are prone to water stains and damage. Many planse in pasteboard boxes are well-preserved. However, the result of a #45 sitting against wet pasteboard is not pretty....
The earliest box that I have seen is the one below for, which is for a type 5 plane. It dates to about 1893-1894. (Thanks to Patrick Leach for this picture)
This type of box is also very common. I believe they were made from about 1915-1920 up to the 1930's.
Here's a box similar to the two shown above, but with slightly different labels. This type of box is probably from the 1930's to 1940's.
Another minor variation. The box below has a white label below the "One 45 Plane" label. On the box above, the label is green. The pictures below also show the standard screwdriver that was included with this plane, and the double-cutter box.
These boxes are from the 1940's or 1950's. Since these are more recent, it is possible to find them in mint condition.
Here are some pasteboard boxes containing the hollow & round attachments. Attachments in the original boxes are very rare and expensive.
