Anglo Raj Decorative Boxes

This very pleasing and colourful object is a late 19th century Raj period marble and hardstone pietra dura box. The box is carved from a solid single piece of hard white marble. It ...

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...

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...

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.

Vintage 1950s Pietra Dura Marble Box Inlaid with Red Carnelian and Green Malachite. This is a beautiful antique Mughal style Rajasthani semi-precious gem floral inlay or "pietra dura" box. The box is white marble and the exquisite flower design is inlaid with red carnelian, green malachite, and white mother of pearl. A beautiful multi semi-preciouses stone floral inlay or 'pietra dura' design box. The box itself is made from white granite marble with inlaid top and sides. This beautiful vintage hand crafted piece with pietra dura hand-work is from Rajasthan, India, circa 1950s. A beautiful item for a desk, dresser, nightstand table, vanity, bath area, to hold jewelry or other small items. Mughal style Rajasthani inlaid marble decorative rectangular box in Pietra Dura work. Out-sdanding Fine Jewelry box with semi precious stone handcrafted marble inlaid with semi precious stones. It is the same craftwork that you see in the Taj Mahal. Very nice fine Pietra Dura Mughal Agra art work. Box is: 4.25" x 3.25" x 1"5. Circa Mid 20th century. This gorgeous vintage handcrafted box with inlaid pietra dura hand-work is from Rajasthan, India. This is a spectacular very fine Pietra Dura inlaid white marble in an octagonal shape with wonderful colors and quality craftsmanship. This beautiful handcrafted marble inlay table...

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! From circa 1870-80, it is a highly carved Padouk wood cover with raised carved reliefs, bordered with Sadeli Mosaic from Bombay and edged in faux ivory/ivorine and ebony stringing. The fact that this is a Book/Folio Cover, for the holding and keeping of your books or manuscripts, in ‘good order’, is what makes this piece so RARE! We have been collecting Anglo-Indian items...

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...

Rajasthani inlaid stone marble decorative set of two boxes in Pietra Dura work. Beautiful handcrafted trinket boxes in marble inlaid with semi precious colored stones, jasper, carnelian for orange. It is the same craftwork that you see in the Taj Mahal. Very nice fine Pietra Dura art...

Vintage collectible tin canister Jahan's Tea - Darjeeling Tea. From Calcutta India. Advertising collectible tea tin canister India, Jahan's Tea - Dar...

Presenting a superb 19C Anglo Indian Sadeli Mosaic greeting card case. Made in or around Bombay, India, circa 1860-80. This is a greeting card case and would be used for holding your greeting cards or business cards of the day. Most Sadeli pieces, were made at the end of the 19th Century (1880+) during the Raj Era and would have been made specifically for British diplomats/military officers and businessmen. Due to their intricate and painstaking workmanship, they would be far too expensive for ordinary Indian people. Later Sadeli, post-1880, is often much 'smoother to the touch', with the introduction of industrial precision tools, that could smoothly cut and polish the mosaic inlay during production. Early Sadeli, pre-1880, is recognizable by it's 'coarse' to the touch mosaic and exterior. Each piece of mosaic inlay, being hand-cut, hand polished and hand inlaid. This early Sadeli can date back to the 18th Century and is mainly seen in Regency Era Sewing Boxes. Early Sadeli, is by far the MOST desirable to Collectors, as it was made 'pre-machine' era. This Card Case, is an 'Early Sadeli' mosaic and therefore pre-1880, We think 1860-80, as it was during this 'High Victorian' Era that Greeting Card Cases, became the fashion in British 'Society". 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 stupendous! This case is almost museum quality. One or two very, very minor losses of mosaic, mainly where the removeable 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...