Moorish Micro Mosaic Jewelry Box by Rajhastani, India, 1950

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Moorish style micro mosaic marquetry inlaid jewelry box with lid.
Intricate inlaid Anglo Indian box with floral and geometric Islamic
… Read more Moorish style micro mosaic marquetry inlaid jewelry box with lid.
Intricate inlaid Anglo Indian box with floral and geometric Islamic
Moorish mosaic Sadeli design in a square shape form with mosaic inlay and marquetry, very fine artwork, lined in red velvet.
Museum collector piece like the one in Doris Duke Islamic Art Museum.
The repeating geometric patterns of Sadeli Mosaic are what give it beauty and richness. This decorative technique is a type of micro mosaic featuring repeating geometric patterns. A highly skilled craft, it has had a long history in India and the Middle East with early examples dating back to the 16th century. In the 1800s, it became popular as a decoration on a variety of boxes, card cases, and chess boards imported from India. Since Bombay became a center of making them, they became known as Bombay boxes.
The ancient art of Sadeli Mosaic is said to have been introduced from Shiraz in Persia via Sind to Bombay, a long time before Indian boxes appeared. The designs on early boxes 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 isn’t immediately apparent to the viewer. See less