Sampson Mordan & Co. Furniture

A fine vintage signed silver trinket box or pillbox. By Tiffany & Co. In sterling silver. In the form of a sitting hen. The chicken has a hinge to its tail and opens up with applied pressure to the chest. Marked to the base. Simply a wonderful Tiffany trinket box...

Gorgeous trinket box or powder jar featuring an ornate scroll and lattice design sterling silver overlay over a pretty pink porcelain. The mark on the bottom is not legible.

Elizabeth II sterling silver box. Made by Padgett & Braham Ltd in London in 1963. Rectangular with straight sides. Cover hinged with gently curved top and tapering tab. Interior ...

Very pretty sterling silver Tiffany & Co. jewelry ball, box, number 35378 Weighted, 7.

English Art Deco sterling silver box, 1957. Rectangular with plain sides. Cover hinged and tabbed with flat top and chamfered edges; allover engine-turned ornament. Cedar-lined inter...

Hallmarked in London in 1889 by Barnards, this attractive Victorian, antique, sterling silver biscuit box, has swirled and sunken half fluting, in the Queen Anne style. It has a flus...

A fine antique Pre-Revolution Russian Imperial silver-gilt & cloisonné enamel coin purse/case, Moscow, 1899. The purse with the maker's mark in Cyrillic and the assayer's mark for Iv...

An large antique Victorian sterling silver jardiniere with blue glass liner. The shaped dish is pierced all-over; has a beaded border...

A large precious stone and silver-gilt flower model by Asprey. English, 20th century. Measures: 47cm high x 14cm wide x 12 cm depth. Crafted ...

George VI sterling silver box. Made by Robert Pringle & Sons in London in 1939. Rectangular with curved corners. Cover hinged and tabbed; top has engine-turned wave ornament and rect...

A fine antique silver box. By Tiffany & Co. In sterling silver. With a gilt interior and engraved foliate swags to the lid. Monogrammed 'AMB' to the center of the lid. Fully mar...

A scarce fine quality antique silver-inlaid solid brass betel nut box (Lutuan), dating to the second half of the 19th / early 20th century, hand-crafted in Mindanao, Philippines. Boxes such as this were used to store the areca nut (also known as the betel nut) which would be wrapped in a betel leaf with lime paste and other ingredients, often tobacco, for chewing. Similar to the European tea caddy, these boxes often served as a way to impress while showing off ones wealth. Betel chewing was prevalent in the southern Philippines as in much of the rest of Southeast Asia. Wealthier Maranao families on Mindanao were able to afford elaborate silver-inlaid brass betel boxes such as this example. Such boxes were used to show off to guests and from which they were offered betel and the other component such as leaves and lime to make up the betel quid. Rare large size, most extant examples of such boxes tend to measure around 5 inches in length. At slightly more than 7.75 inches the example here is larger than most. The distinctive decorative box features a very heavy strong-box like rectangular shaped chest form with canted corners, copper handles, and a conforming hinged lid, lifting open to reveal an interior divided into three compartments covered by four hinged lids. Each of these doors is inlaid with silver in stylized orchid flower patterns. Exceptionally executed throughout, the arabesque silver inlaid exterior is decorated to the top with a large orchid motif within scrolling obid-obid (stylized rope) borders. The front, back and sides are inlaid with sets of stylized tail feathers of the sari-manok bird beneath which are unusual, highly stylized whimsical zoomorphic faces that appear like cat or tiger faces. (Such stylisation is accounted for by Southeast Asian Islamic preferences to avoid the overt and this potentially idolatrous representation of animal and human forms. Designs such as these are drawn from a local design repertoire that has its origins in wood carving. Although the spread of Islam in the Philippines began in the 14th century, mostly through the influence of Muslim merchants from the western Malay Archipelago, decorative arts in this design remain exceptionally rare. This lutuan represents a fine example of Islamic metalwork from the most eastern outreach of Islamic art and civilisation: Mindanao island being significantly further east than even China – artwork from Islamic Southeast Asia remains chronically under-represented in the world’s major collections of Islamic art. PROVENANCE / ACQUISITION Acquired from highly reputable auction house, Austin Auction Gallery, established 1983, Austin, Texas. References Brownrigg, H., Betel Cutters...