Container for artist's pastels

Claim 1

An outer container for cleaning artist's pastels while storing or transporting them which comprises: side, front and rear walls, a top and a bottom, the top being movable away from, and toward, the rear wall to at least partially open and to close the outer container; means for supporting at least a first inner tray container above the bottom of the outer container; the first inner tray container being vertically removably supported on the supporting means and having a fully open top and an open mesh bottom adapted to hold a plurality of pastels thereon; a freely flowing, granular abrasive below the first inner tray container; the fully open top and mesh bottom of said first inner tray container comprising means for passage of the granular abrasive therethrough for cleaning the pastels thereon; the top of the outer container comprising, when closed, means for retaining the granular abrasive in the outer container; and for restraining the first inner tray container from moving substantially away from the bottom of the outer container and for restraining the pastels within the first inner tray container from moving substantially away from the open mesh bottom of the first inner tray container when the outer container is inverted; whereby the outer container constitutes means for storing the transporting pastels and is adapted to be inverted so that the granular abrasive passes through the open mesh bottom of the first inner tray container and around, and in abrasive contact with, the pastels to clean them while storing or transporting them.