John Richard Attrib Black Lacquered Sun Rise Inlaid Table Box

A stunning vintage Moorish arabesque inlaid table box, 20th century, high quality rectangular box with hinged lid, featuring contrasting mother of pearl, exotic hardwood, and bone ma...

A stunning very fine quality antique English stationary box in striking exotic hardwood coromandel / madagascar ebony. circa 1880 Exquisitely hand-crafted in England in the 19th ce...

A scarce antique Italian fall-front jewelry box with lockplate and hasp attributed to Jacopo and Lodovico del Duca. Lockplate and Hasp designed circa 1570, date of manufacture unknown, attributed to the late 16th century Roman foundry of Jacopo (c. 1520-1604) and Ludovico (fl. 1551-1601) del Duca. The rectangular drop-front box casket, circa 1880, signed L'PUPLET, features an earlier finely cast gilt bronze lock plate with a coat-of-arms and hasp, mounted on drop-front chest of drawers form box covered in embossed and gilded paper, having fall-front panel opening to reveal three interior drawers, all lined in red velvet. The wallpaper covering the box's exterior features bamboo, birds, and flowers in the Japanesque taste (orientalist) popular in Europe in the 1870s and 1880. To the interior of the fall front is a circular stamp with the name of the workshop or store (possibly L'PUPLET) somewhat obscured, and the city "Burxelles" indicating that the box was likely made or retailed in that city in the late 19th century. Marks to box: L'PUPLET, BRUXELLES Inscription: 13, 14, 15 (Interior drawers inscribed on the verso of their backboards in script from top to bottom, respectively) Provenance / Acquisition: The origin of the elaborate lockplate with hasp on the front of the piece is more intriguing. At least 76 lockplates of this design have been recorded in major museums, private collections, and in the antiques trade across the Western World. For example, lockplates of this pattern are in the collections of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the State Museum of Prussian Cultural Heritage in Berlin, the Museum Cicico in Bologna, The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Dallas Museum of Art in Texas, the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the Museo di Palazzo Venezia in Rome, the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.[1] Specialists in Renaissance bronzes, especially Charles Avery...

A large antique English Victorian era brass-mounted papier-mache dressing box. 19th century, England, large shaped casket form, exterior in a black lacquered finish embellished with...

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...

A stunning antique Qing Dynasty Chinese export twin canister tea caddy / decorative table box. circa 1860 Hand-crafted in China for the European market when rare and exotic oriental...

Fine quality antique inlaid lacquered oriental box with gold fleck inlaid lacquered interior. It has a fantastic colour and condition. Wonderful orig...

Chinese mother of pearl inlaid lacquered long rectangular box, the cover depicting two figures or immortals with all-over landscape decoration,...

Chinese mother of pearl inlaid lacquered rectangular box, depicting in landscape, circa late 19th-early 20th century. Measures: 3.5" H x 9.75" ...

An unusual and fine antique Chinese Qing lacquered and inlaid papier mache handled sewing box with decorative panels dating from latter 19th or early 20th century. The sewing box is of round cylindrical shape with a swing carry handle and is inlaid with mother of pearl and abalone. The body is made up of eight oval shaped scenes of typical Chinese style with buildings and people picked out with inset abalone and mother of pearl and highlighted and contained within a gilded border. These are set between bands of patterned abalone and against a blue silk background. A similar band of abalone is applied to the swing handle. The cover sits within a recess and is made up of bands on inset abalone with cut out triangular designs and set over blue silk with a small finely carved mother of pearl handle...

Beautiful and Minimalist trinket box by R Y Augousti. This rare beauty is a unique trinket box or decorative box that brings minimal shape with organic beauty. Constructed of wood pa...

Inlaid Coffin from Beverly Hills Estate of Ann Miller, the late great hoofer. Original velvet lining and mirror.