Sweden - Asian Art and Furniture

Elegant inlaid cabinet, this cabinet features a very high level inlay. In the central part there is a triumph of polychrome flowers framed by a sharpening, at the corners of which ar...

Marked at base, Japan, 19th century. Provenance: Collection Nieuwenhove. Condition: Minimal age signs like some ware to enamel. 1 process flaw or damage to base rim. Size: 330 x ...

Classic Chinese blue and white porcelain jardinière with hand painted cobalt decoration. The white porcelain with painted Dragon a...

A small copper crab with articulated legs made by Myochin Hiroyoshi in the late Meiji Period circa 1890-1900s. As an ornamental display item, this type of small sculpture with moving...

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...

Charming pair of Chinese chairs in red lacquered wood. The back of the latter is reminiscent of the bonnet worn by the scholars. The very straight lines of the set give it a very des...

A wooden vessel used from the Meiji era to the Taisho era. Probably a beech tree. It is made by hollowing out. It's very cool, isn't it? It is a round bowl made of one piece of wood...

This handled box is a Japanese tabako-bon, or 'tobacco tray,' used to store tobacco and smoking accessories. Believed to have evolved from the traditional...

Exceptional incense burner in finely chiseled patinated bronze. The barrel with a rotating decoration of birds and branches is supported by three shishis. Two other Fô lions serve as...

This Antique Tibetan Painted Cabinet is 100% hand made and hand painted using mineral painting which last the paint a much longer time. You can see some of the finish has already los...

A wooden vessel used from the Meiji era to the Taisho era. Probably a beech tree. It is made by hollowing out. It's very cool, isn't it? It is a lacquered tall foot round tray made ...

Inspired by a centuries-old technique of Chinese ceramics, this elegant table lamp is a bright and dramatic shade of turquoise with a fine crackle glaze. The dimensions are measured...