Anglo Raj Decorative Boxes

1920s Hand Painted East Indian Decorative Box. An antique Rajasthani Indian hand painted wood box, early 20th century. The box is handcrafted of wood and feature a hinged lid that ca...

Anglo-Indian stag horn veneered sandalwood sewing or work box with a sloped two-tier lid having a carved finial above tapered sides and raised on compressed ball feet. The interior w...

Anglo-Indian antler veneered work/storage made in Vizagapatam, of large size and having a double tiered sloped top with a large circular finial above vertically veneered sides, all r...

Ivory and blue chevron decorative trinket rectangular lidded box inlaid with white bone and resin on wood. Large stylish Moorish trinket lidded box with bone and wood inlaid handcraf...

A large rectangular box made of dark hardwood inlaid with bone dots framing panels of porcupine quill. The exterior of the box is veneered with quill cut and arranged to create a zig...

An exquisite Indian Koftgari work box, or jewelry box, circa 1900, in oval shape. Featuring very fine, gold thread decoration with three silvered bun feet and a silvered base. The li...

Anglo-Raj Marble Inlay Box Marble Pietra Dura Censor Stone Travertine Box 1950s. Vintage inlaid marble pietra dura decorative box with lid handcrafted in India. Handmade marble decorative lidded box inlaid with brass. It is the same craft that you see in the Taj Mahal. Very nice fine pietra dura art work. Box is: 4" x 6" x 1"5 H. Handcrafted brown marble decorative box, handmade in Rajasthan, India. Open carved Jali Moorish Mughal Style open work on each sides to use with incense or home perfume. Vintage rectangular shape decorative lidded travertine table top trinket box with brass banding. A mid 20th century modern style period travertine marble box. The stone has subtle light earth tone variations that contrast with the reflective brass accents. This elegant trinket decorative marble box...

Anglo-Indian box made from panels of horn and decorated with inlaid brass and white metal forming stylized flowers and borders, raised on turned horn feet. Missing four or five dots.

PRESENTING A RARE AND DESIRABLE 19C Anglo Indian Highly Carved Padouk and Mosaic Folio Cover. This is a VERY RARE piece of Anglo-Indian and British Victorian Colonial history! ...

Vintage Rajasthani Pietra Dura White Stone Inlay Taj Mahal India Style coaster plates. Rajasthani inlaid stone marble decorative set of 7 small roun...

Anglo Raj inlaid marble pietra dura decorative box with lid. Handmade marble decorative lidded box inlaid with semi precious stones, jasper and carnelian for orange. It is the same craft that you see in the Taj Mahal. Very nice fine pietra dura art...

The rectangular Indian pen box with domed hinged lid is hand-painted with colorful figural Maharajah court scenes on top and floral designs on each side. Hand painted Rajasthani decorative writing...

Hand tooled cast metal incense stick holder in a Snail Shaped form. Vintage cast brass incense burner holder. A censer, incense burner, perfume ...

Presenting a superb 19C Anglo Indian Sadeli Mosaic greeting card case. Made in or around Bombay, India circa 1880. This is a greeting card case used for holding your greeting cards or business cards of the day ! The body of the case is made from sandalwood and it is fully overlaid with bone and highly intricate Sadeli Mosaic made up of thousands of micro mosaic pieces of bone, ebony, silver/pewter and semi precious stone. The workmanship is stupenduous !!!! This case is almost museum quality. One or two very, very minor losses of mosaic mainly where the top meets the body but otherwise near mint ! SADELI MOSAIC: “Anglo Indian boxes were made in India for the English residents from the early part of the 18th century. They were brought back or sent back to England usually by the people who had commissioned them. From the beginning of the nineteenth century they were imported more commercially, although not in any significant numbers until the middle decades. They were very highly valued, especially the early ones, to the extent that the designs were copied on late 19th and early 20th century tins. The ancient art of Sadeli Mosaic is said to have been introduced from Shiraz in Persia via Sind to Bombay, a long time before the Anglo Indian boxes were made. It was a technique, which required a high degree of skill and patience. It was executed very lavishly, in that the frequent cuts wasted a great amount of the precious materials used. The workmanship was however more than commensurable to the value of the materials. Ivory, silver, pewter (or other metals), wood and horn were cut into faceted rods which were bound together to form geometric patterns. When the glue has set, the rods were sliced in transverse sections. This gave the maker a number of angled circular pieces in the original pattern. Several variations of patterns could be achieved by combining the materials in different ways. The ivory was sometimes dyed green to give an extra color. The mosaic pieces in a combination of patterns, often separated by ivory, ebony, horn or silver stringing were used to veneer sandalwood boxes. In the early boxes, which date from the turn of the 18th to the 19th century, there are large panels of mosaic covering tops and sides of boxes. It took incredible skill to cover such large areas without any shakes or wavering of the pattern. The corners and joins on these boxes are impeccably matched. The makers (reputed to be Persian) of Sadeli mosaic made in the first two decades of the 19th century displayed a total understanding of the qualities of the different materials they used. They combined substances, which can expand and contract according to atmospheric conditions with others, which are hard and unyielding. The result was a sharp definition of the lines and patterns, which made up the whole design. On the early boxes the designs look deceptively simple. The fact is, they emerged from a culture, which had mastered geometry and understood how to generate a pattern from a set number of points. The patterns are so harmoniously combined that their incredible complexity is not immediately apparent. The earliest Sadeli boxes...

Asian decorative trinket lidded box in metal silvered hammered and etched with organic floral design. Anglo Raj style oval form betel box. Dimensio...

Black painted and gilt banded steel dispatch box with interior fitted for writing. The case has a lock, brass reinforced corners, and the sides are mounte...

Nice and unusual Jewelry decorative box with filigree bone overlaid decoration. Large Anglo-Indian footed domed box with exceptional engraved bone de...

Double height carved Indian box An unusual piece with 2 levels, the top of the box in the octagonal shape has an opening lid. The lower is recta...

Nice and unusual Indian Mughal style large decorative box, filigree and carved horn. Anglo-Indian footed domed box with exceptional engraved details throughout with filigree and carved veneered bone plaques with arabesque carving. Vizagapatam, late 19th century. History of the Anglo-Indian Boxes Beginning in the early part of the 18th century, Indian artisans made what came to be known as Anglo-Indian boxes for the English residents living in India, who eventually brought or sent them back to England. At the beginning of the 19th century, India began exporting these boxes commercially, although not in any significant numbers until the 1850s. People valued them so highly that manufacturers of tins copied the designs on them in the late 19th and early 20th century. Anglo-Indian boxes fall into four groups: Rosewood or ebony boxes inlaid; sandalwood boxes veneered; sandalwood boxes covered with Sadeli mosaic; and carved boxes often combined with Sadeli mosaic/ The first two categories came from Vizagapatam in East India while the last two came from Bombay in West India. English traders discovered the rich woods and intricate workmanship of Indian artisans, so colonial government officials began to recognize the work of the Indian artists and craftsmen as a source for satisfying the need for furniture and boxes, which would both serve to enhance English households in India. This gave rise to the cabinetmaking workshops in Vizagapatam between Calcutta and Madras. Craftsmen made the first boxes to be decorated with Sadeli mosaic of rosewood or ebony, incised to give further definition to the decoration, directly inlaid into the wood. The shape of the early boxes was either sloping at the front with a flatter section at the back, reminiscent of English writing slopes, or rectangular. Artisans inlaid the borders with stylized floral scrolls and the centers with a single floral motif following a circular or oval symmetrical or asymmetrical pattern. The edging was ornamental and protective, both helped protect the end grain against the weather. Made in Vizagapatam, situated on the south east coast of India, near Madras These exotic boxes...

Hand-carved large wooden Anglo-Raj jewelry box. Early 20th century wood box richly decorated overall with arabesques and floral carving. Hinged lid shallow relief carving with interi...

Hand-carved Anglo Raj early 20th century carved wood box richly decorated overall with arabesques and floral carving. Hinged lid shallow relief carving with interior lined with red r...

Hand carved large wooden Anglo-Raj jewelry box. Early 20th century wood box richly decorated overall with arabesques and floral carving. Hinged lid shallow relief carving with inte...

Anglo Raj carved soap stone footed jewelry box.. Handcrafted decorative box with foliage design with soap stone natural jade like colors. Lined with red velvet. Very nice fine art...

19th century Anglo-Indian Mughal wood box, inlaid and hand carved with the Taj Mahal and some flowers all around. Jewelry box, Anglo-Raj box from India in great condition. Nice Mughal Bombay Box...

Anglo-Indian glove or trinket box from Vizagapatam of rectangular form with sloped top. Made from sandalwood with vertically ribbed horn veneered sides and starburst ribbed lid with ...