Mongolian Decorative Boxes

Four sculptural leather covered yak butter churns from Tibet. The faded old leather coverings are crudely stitched with beautiful surfaces. Great pieces r...

Nice wooden and mother-of-pearl box from the 1900s. The mother-of-pearl inlays form plant motifs (flowers and foliage), incised to give volume to the different parts. It closes with ...

An antique Indian handmade jewelry box from the 19th century with brass hardware, bracket feet and partitioned interior. Created in India during t...

Antique collectible opium container Mughal Art round lidded box. This stylish lidded box is veneered with ivory color white bone sections engraved and hand painted with floral Mughal design int he same work as in the Taj Mahal palace.. Beautiful round Bombay box...

A diminutive Antique Chinese Cloisonné box with jade medallion line with wood. The enameled outside in shades of blue with gold color wir...

An exceptional Indo-Portuguese colonial mother-of-pearl veneered casket with silver mounts India, Gujarat, 2nd half of the 16th century, the silver mounts Goa or probably Lisbon Measures: H. 16 x W. 24.6 x D. 16.1 cm An exceptional Gujarati casket with a rectangular box and truncated pyramidal lid (with slopes on each side and a flat top) made from exotic wood, probably teak (Tectona grandis), covered with a mother-of-pearl mosaic. The tesserae, cut from the shell of the green turban sea snail (Turbo marmoratus, a marine gastropod) in the shape of fish scales, are pinned to the wooden structure with silver ball-headed nails. The casket is set on bracket feet on the corners. The masterfully engraved decoration of the silver mounts follows the most refined and erudite Mannerist repertoire of rinceaux and ferroneries dating from the mid-16th century. The high quality and refinement of the silver mounts and, likewise, the silver nails that replaced the original brass pins used to hold the mother-of-pearl tesserae in place indicate the work of a silversmith probably working in Lisbon in the second half of the 16th century. The Indian origin of this production, namely from Cambay (Khambhat) and Surat in the present state of Gujarat in north India, is, as for the last three decades, consensual and fully demonstrated, not only by documentary and literary evidence - such as descriptions, travelogues and contemporary archival documentation - but also by the survival in situ of 16th-century wooden structures covered in mother-of-pearl tesserae. A fine example is a canopy decorating the tomb (dargah) of the Sufi saint, Sheik Salim Chisti (1478-1572) in Fatehpur Sikri in Agra district in the state of Uttar Pradesh, north India. This is an artistic production, geometric in character and Islamic in nature, where usually the mother-of-pearl tesserae form complex designs of fish scales or, similar to the dishes also made using the same technique, with the thin brass sheets and pins, stylized lotus flowers. The truncated pyramidal shape corresponds, like their contemporary tortoiseshell counterparts also made in Gujarat, to a piece of furniture used in the Indian subcontinent within the Islamic world prior to the arrival of the first Portuguese. This shape, in fact, is very old and peculiar to East-Asian caskets, chests or boxes used to contain and protect Buddhist texts, the sutras. A similar chest is the famous and large reliquary chest from Lisbon cathedral that once contained the relics of the city's patron saint, Saint Vincent. Both match in shape, having the same kind of socle or pedestal and bracket feet, and in their engraved silver mountings, featuring the same type of refined, erudite decoration. Their differences lie in the silver borders that frame the entire length of the edges of the chest (both the box and the lid), pinned with silver nails, and on the lock plate, shaped like a coat of arms in the Lisbon example. Given the exceptional dimensions of the reliquary casket...

Antique Anglo-Indian quill box handcrafted and decorated with porcupine quills and bone dots. Made in Ceylon which was the colonial name for Sri Lanka.

Early 19th century fine antique Indo-Persian carved sandalwood wooden box. Incredibly intricate, highly detailed and deeply carved beautiful handcrafted and carved wooden box with Mu...

Large Teak Jewelry Dowry Box with Brass, Late 19th Century, India. Indian Dowry Box in Lacquered Teak with Decorative Brass. This large Ethnic Indian ...

A Chinese vintage two-tier rattan and bamboo lunch basket from the mid-20th century, with large handle and lid. Born in China during the midcentury period, this lunch basket features...

An antique rustic Chinese wooden document box with brass stud design. This antique Chinese wooden document box, embellished with a brass stud design, radiates rustic charm and carrie...

A vintage Chinese rattan hat box from the mid-20th century with weathered patina and oxidized accents. We have similar ones available. Born in C...