Montreal Decorative Boxes

A rare and highly sought-after sterling silver money box or bank, the like of which I have never seen before. The box is made from English sterling...

An art deco guilloche enamel box made in Austria. Beautiful enamel round box, created in Vienna Austria during the art deco period, back in the 1922. This beautiful antique piece wa...

A classic antique solid Silver Cigar Box / Cigarette Box with a highly polished silver exterior. The interior of the Silver Box has a cedar wood lined base and the lid is gilded. The interior has a removable wooden...

Mark Cross leather attaché case.

Beautiful handcrafted antique tinned copper decorative octagonal betel box with with lid, handle and brass latch. The metal is delicately and int...

Box by Fontana Arte, Wood and Glass, 1940s

This elegant hand-carved modernist Art Deco decorative lidded box was crafted in France circa 1940. The rectangular shape has solid wood and crystal clear Lucite on the sides and is ...

Inlay wooden box crafted of natural materials.

Our stack sphere sculptures can be used as a decorative element on a coffee table, bookshelf, console etc. Their warm hue and curved lines add the right amount of visual interest without overwhelming additional decor. The mix of marble and resin make an incredible combo, a mix that is modern, fun and harmonious. You can place the small sphere on top of the big one or you can separate them and create a new piece. They are sold by set of two in different sizes. Material: travertine marble and traslucid brown with marbled brown resin Measurements: Small: Travertine sphere...

Large box built in spring wood with ebony veneer and geometric inlays in bronze and spring wood. The influence for this piece came from Marion Dorn's design of the black and cream g...

Acrylic and shellac based inks on Ingres paper; book binding board Stamped by artist on underside A hand-constructed rectangular box with a pyramid capital atop the stepped, remova...

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...