South Asian Boxes

Lovely quill box Ebony and porcupine quill Good condition Free UK shipping. PLEASE NOTE only available in the UK . Because of the ivory content the item needs a Cites certificate...

Exceptional antique Anglo Indian sewing box handcrafted with quills and decorated bone with a brass handle, lion heads and paw feet. The interior has pin cushions and compartments wi...

Tree Full of Parrots Trinket Box in Brass & Semi Precious Stone, Viya by Vikram Goyal A tree full of parrots is a sign of success in aspirations and future endeavours. According to the 17th century Indian manuscript...

A superbly hand-painted Mughal miniature lacquer box, created in the refined Indo-Persian artistic tradition and signed “Nangua”. This exquisite octagonal decorative box features a f...

A small Sinhalese Porcupine Quill Box with a sliding lid. The panels of porcupine quill panels arranged in a chevron pattern, bordered with ebony and bone inlaid banding. Ceylonese ...

Antique Persian Khatam Micro Mosaic Inlaid Jewelry Box with Miniature Polo Scene, circa 1940s This exquisite Persian Khatam Kari trinket box is a rare example of masterful micro mosaic marquetry, handcrafted in the 1940s using the ancient Persian art of inlay. Featuring an intricately detailed geometric design and a miniature hand-painted equestrian scene on the lid, this museum-quality piece is a stunning representation of Indo-Persian and Moorish craftsmanship. Khatam Kari, or Persian marquetry, is a centuries-old decorative art that flourished during the Safavid dynasty. It involves the meticulous inlay of thousands of tiny pieces of wood and bone into intricate, repeating geometric patterns—each symbolic of harmony and cosmic order. The top of this box is adorned with a finely rendered painting of royal figures on horseback, possibly princes engaged in a ceremonial game of polo, echoing the refined court culture of the 19th-century Persian and Mughal aristocracy. The box’s micro mosaic surface is covered in richly detailed star and polygon motifs typical of Khatam and Sadeli mosaic traditions. These patterns require precise mathematical planning and exceptional artisanal skill, resulting in a surface that is as intellectually complex as it is visually stunning. Details: * Origin: Asia Indo-Persian * Date: Circa 1940s * Materials: Inlaid woods, camel bone, hand-painted miniature * Style: Islamic Art, Moorish, Anglo-Indian, Micro Mosaic * Dimensions: Height 1.5 in. x Width 6.5 in. x Depth 4.25 in. * Condition: antique condition with minor wear consistent with age These boxes were traditionally used to store writing instruments or jewelry, and today they serve as timeless collectors' pieces, suitable for display or thoughtful gifting. Comparable examples can be found in major Islamic art collections, including the Doris Duke Museum of Islamic Art. Keywords: Persian Khatam Box...

An Exquisite Masterpiece of Mughal Splendor: A Rare Gold-Mounted Jade Box with Diamonds and Semi-Precious Stones Introduction to a Regal Artifact: This exceptional jade box, hailing from the storied Mughal Dynasty, is an unparalleled exemplar of imperial artistry and luxury. Acquired from the prestigious Spink & Son of London, this artifact transcends its material beauty to stand as a significant piece of historical and cultural importance. With its rich provenance and intricate craftsmanship, this jade box embodies the opulence and refined tastes of one of history’s most powerful and influential empires. Craftsmanship: The Art of Mughal Luxury: At the heart of this piece lies a finely carved jade...

Mughal style pietra dura marble box - hand made - featuring an over-all floral and vine design with lapis lazuli, mother-of-pearl and black onyx inlay - signed on the base and the li...

Very decorative hand painted in the Anglo-Indian style. Painted back and gold with each framed panel filled with female dancers and male flower bearing suiters. A colorful and fun, a...

Campaign Box Carved Gentleman's British Army WW2 Regimental Arms Beautifully stylized and masterfully carved wooden box of floral and fruit foliage bas-rel...

Decorative Antique Asian round wood box container with lid and brass pull. Vintage collectible Asian wooden tobacco or opium round container. Round shaped lidded opium container...

Beautiful 19th century large hand-crafted decorative round polished brass box with lid delicately and intricately hand-hammered with repousse floral...

Large Asian decorative wooden jewelry box with brass overlay. Large ethnic Indian hand painted decorative jewelry wood box with brass metal hammere...

Charming petite antique Anglo Indian lidded box handcrafted in indigenous hardwoods clad in tortoise shell and decorated with elaborate lacy bone designs, featuring an etched and pai...

Vintage Asian Silver Metal Hand-Carved Sitar Veena Box. Elevate your decor with this stunning vintage box, featuring intricate hand-carved designs of a sitar and peacock. The ornate ...

An Anglo Indian bone, ebony and metal inlaid sadeli work box with portable writing desk, Bombay, circa 1850. The sandalwood body of faceted recta...

1950s Anglo Indian Micro Sadeli Mosaic Inlaid Jewelry Box. DIMENSIONS: 7ʺW × 7ʺD × 2.5ʺH. Indo Persian Moorish style micro mosaic inlaid jewelry box with lid. Intricate inlaid Anglo ...

Antique Chinese Tibetan Brass Filigree with Turquoise and Coral beads round Box Handcrafted round Tibetan, Nepalese decorative brass trinket wish box. Antique Asian Tibetan hand made box inlaid with polished turquoise and coral glass inlay pieces. Great fine brass filigree design on the top lid and sides. Has a wonderful patina. In good shape with age appropriate wear this box has retained its original patina finish, has no missing pieces. Opens and closes as it should. A beautiful Asian pill box for a vanity or desk. Box measures: 2" height X 4" diameter. Tibetan Buddhist prayer boxes...

Charming antique Anglo Indian lidded box handcrafted in indigenous hard wood clad in organic tortoise shell and decorated in bone with painted floral engravings, lacy open fretwork a...

Superb Ceylonese porcupine quill lidded pot in a most unusual conical shape Fashioned in dark wood and decorated with quill pieces All quills are present and in excellent order. Int...

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...

A fine antique 19th-Century British Colonial porcupine quill and ebony box, made in Ceylon the colonial name for Sri Lanka. This fine hand crafted box has a sliding lid and is decora...

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...

Wonderful writing box made from a tropical hardwood Fabulous shape and plain fluted carving. It gives it a modernist appearance Probably Sri Lankan 3 secret drawers* Replaced lea...

A diminutive carved pink marble Postmodern cylindrical trinket box. The perfect size for gifting a piece of jewelry or as a gift in itself for a box collector. In excellent condition...

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. Porcupine quillwork objects of...

Collectible Chinese Tibetan Gilt Brass Metal Filigree with Turquoise and Coral beads round Box Handcrafted round Tibetan, Nepalese decorative brass trinket wish box with pull-off lid...

Presenting an absolutely stunning 19c Anglo Ceylonese sewing box of museum quality. Made in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) circa 1860, this is one of the finest sewing boxes of it’s kind that we have ever seen! The box is made from coromandel wood (an exotic hardwood found in Ceylon) and has a serpentine edging all over the front, back and sides. Very often the lids/tops of these boxes suffer cracks due to shrinkage but this one is near perfect with no crack in the lid/top. There is some evidence of natural shrinkage but that is around the edges of the lid/top. It is when you open this box that it reveals it’s true beauty, quality and treasure ! The inside of the lid/top is heavily and beautifully decorated with inlaid bone in scrolling floral patterns which have then been hand painted with red and black ‘lac’ ink. The central medallion is a circle of inlaid specimen exotic hardwoods radiating towards a central bone and hand painted flower. The circle is edged in bone, wood and silver chevrons. What makes this box Exceptionally rare is that it contains 3 lift out base sections. Normally, there would be a maximum of 2. The first tray/section is clearly for the purposes ancillary to sewing with a pair of sections with bone spools for thread etc. There are 17 other lidded compartments with each one highly decorated using hand painted bone and specimen woods to replicate tortoiseshell. The first tray lifts out to reveal a second removeable tray which is made up of a pair of open sections and 8 specimen wood lidded sections each with chevron banding. The third tray is a smaller tray underneath with 14 lidded compartments each with hand painted bone and specimen wood inlaid lids again, replicating the look of tortoiseshell. Again they are banded with a chevron border. This is a museum quality piece ! It is in fantastic condition for it’s age with the minor shrinkage to the edges of the lid/top, some finger pulls missing and some very minor cracks to the tray lids and bases but nothing that in any way detracts from the piece. No key. Dimensions: Closed the box is 16.75 inches wide, 11.25 inches deep and 7.5 inches high Fully open the box is 16.5 inches high, 16.75 inches wide and 11.4 inches deep Anglo-Indian and ceylonese boxes: 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. Anglo-Indian boxes normally consist of 3 main types:- (1) Most of the best and highest quality Anglo-Indian boxes in the 18th and 19th centuries were made in Vizagapatam, India, renowned for its exquisite craftsmanship in using ivory and tortoiseshell and lac decoration. These are referred to as ‘Vizagapatam Boxes...

Rare and remarkable Anglo Indian box turtle tea caddy, the well marked upper shell hollowed and intricately filled with a star inlaid panel, the base with a lidded box, all in exotic...

Anglo Indian rectangular porcupine quill, bone and parquetry box. The box with a hinged lid that opens to reveal embossed red velvet lining and a decorated wood panel...

Very fine 18th century Indian Macassar Ebony traveling writing box with Tutenag metal hardware, the vividly grained case with rare alloy trim, the rectangular form opening to make a ...

Anglo-Indian Mother of Pearl Inlaid jewelry Box. 1940s Victorian Anglo Indian box in silver, bone and mother of pearl Inlaid. An elegant Anglo Indian bon...

Rajasthani Mughal Decorative Copper Lidded Betel Spice Pandan Caddy Box. Handcrafted decorative North India round metal Asian copper Mughal Raj, Indian lidded , spice, pandan betel box with latch and a top handle. Of dome form with lotus-shaped finial, with spiralling bosse designs, Delicately and intricately hand-chased and hammered with geometric Anglo-Indian designs. Consuming betel leaves with several ingredients such as wet lime paste, katechu, areca nut, cloves and even tobacco leaves has been popular in India from the fourth century AD. Dimensions: Height: 9 in (22.86 cm)Diameter: 7 in (17.78 cm) The box was probably used to store the betel leaf used in the preparation of paan. Lime paste is mixed with grated areca nut and flavourings and the resulting mixture is rolled in the betel leaf to form a small parcel which can then be chewed. As well as being an integral part of Indian hospitality paan is believed to possess medicinal properties and was also taken as an aphrodisiac. The present box, which was elaborately designed for this purpose, would have been taken out ceremoniously on special occasions. Exquisite conversation museum quality piece with a very nice antique patina. Fine intricate artwork with conical form lid with Moorish pierced designs. Islamic Mughal Indo Persian...

19th century metamorphic camphor writing slope circa 1890. Here we have a fine quality campaign tambour table top desk made in camphor wood. Many features to this brass bound desk....

An Anglo-Indian table top stationery cabinet, or secretary, in pale padouk wood with string inlay and bone decoration to front and sides, and two doors over two drawers with bone kno...

Vintage Sajai metal and agate talisman box coin purse, Handmade in India, Handmade Sajai metal cross body purse with multi-colored agates and intric...

Beautiful handcrafted tinned copper decorative octagonal betel box with lid and brass latch. The metal is delicately and intricately hand-hammered and repousse with floral and geometric designs. This Vintage brass box...

Anglo Raj inlaid marble pietra dura decorative box This handmade marble decorative box is inlaid with semi precious stones, this type of design is the same art that you see in the Taj Mahal. Very nice fine pietra dura art...

Beautiful white marble jewelry box with floral inlay, made with different semi preciouses stones such as Malachite, Lapis Lazuli and Carnelian. It was made in India in the 1960's.

A beautifully crafted vintage marble box from India, dating to the 1940s–1950s. The surface is intricately inlaid with agate and other precious stones, forming an elegant floral patt...

An Indian brass pandan box, 19th century. 9 inches wide by 7 inches tall

A BRASS MUGHAL INDIAN OVAL BETEL PANDAN BOX Northern India, early 19th century. Length: 5 1/4" in. (13.3 cm.) height: 3 1/4" in. (8.3 cm.) width: 4" in. (1...

Handcarved wooden trinket box with carved geometric shapes, small handmade ornamental indentations and cream white decor on the lid. Rustic organic ...

Antique 19th century beautiful handcrafted decorative round tinned copper bronze South Asian box with lid, latch and handle. A very fine antique Pandan or B...

A 19th century small Indian dowry box on wheels with fitted compartments. The door at the top that slides to the side. The fitted interior has a small...

Antique handcrafted wooden Persian khatam pen box. This Pen Box is completely Khatam handmade design very detailed fine work in and out. Middle Eastern Persian...

A Latched Wooden Box with Brass Overlay Decorations, 20th Century Descriptions: The ebon rectangular box decorated with overlaid Arabesque brass motifs punctuated by nailhead boss...

Antique 19th century Anglo-Indian jewelry, trinket footed box, inlay with ebony, mosaic marquetry Sadeli work and a carved Hindu scene on top. The box case is made from sandalwood wi...

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...

Intriguing antique Ceylonese box handcrafted in ebony and embellished with porcupine quill work, bone dot decoration and a painted bone elephant inlay under the lid.

A beautifully handcrafted pietra dura round marble trinket box, showcasing the centuries-old decorative art form perfected in both Mughal India and Renaissance Florence. The lid feat...

Vintage hand carved wood jewelry trinket storage box with brass inlaid. Hand-carved large wooden Anglo-Raj jewelry box. Found in Kashmir, India. Mi...

Fine Micro Mosaic Indo Persian Moorish Inlaid Trinket Jewelry Box with Miniature Polo Scene, circa 1940s Exceptional handcrafted Indo-Persian jewelry or pen box featuring intricate Sadeli micro mosaic marquetry with inlaid geometric designs and a stunning miniature hand-painted scene on the lid. The artwork depicts 19th-century royal princes in traditional Maharaja attire playing polo, reflecting Mughal and Islamic courtly elegance. Crafted using the traditional Khatam technique, the box is richly inlaid inside and out with fine slivers of wood, bone, and metal, showcasing exceptional craftsmanship from the Middle East or India, circa 1940s. * Dimensions: H 1.75 in. x W 6.5 in. x D 4 in. * Condition: great condition; minor wear consistent with age. A museum-quality piece comparable to those in the Doris Duke Islamic Art Collection. Perfect for collectors of Islamic art, Moorish marquetry, and antique micro mosaic. Keywords: Islamic Marquetry, Sadeli Mosaic, Khatam Box...

Anglo Indian hardwood campaign or dowry chest. This has brass straps, handles and large hinges on the interior. The lock has the original key. The chest is in good condition. It show...

This is a small antique apprentice-piece chest. An Anglo-Indian, carved teak Colonial keepsake box, dating to the late Victorian period, circa 1880....

Antique South Indian Malabar Dowry Jewelry Box, 19th Century Teak with Brass – Kerala, India A rare and collectible South Indian dowry box from Kerala...

Exquisite handcrafted red jasper box, measuring 8" x 6", featuring striking natural banding and patterns in deep red, cream, and earthy tones. Expertly made in India, this polished s...

PRESENTING A BEAUTIFUL and RARE 19C Anglo Ceylonese Specimen Wood Trinket Box. Made in ‘Galle’, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) circa 1860-80. Made for the ex...

Impressive Anglo Indian British colonial style lidded box crafted in mahogany and decorated with bone faux quills and dots having two working keys.

Lofty antique Anglo Indian box crafted with a polished coconut and decorated with jewelry like silvered metal work featuring a hand as a locking clip.