Large Sinhalese Porcupine Quill and Ebony Spice Box With Fully-Fitted Interior, 19th Century

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A large scale Anglo Indian Porcupine quill and ebony spice box with a fully fitted interior, Circa 1870. A handsome … Read more A large scale Anglo Indian Porcupine quill and ebony spice box with a fully fitted interior, Circa 1870. A handsome decorative box featuring veneered, patterned blond quills between bands of ebony with inlaid dots; The number and close proximity of the these dots indicate that this was considered a very valuable box. An exceptional box in excellent condition; with working lock and key.1

height: 6 in. 15 cm., width: 12 in. 30.5 cm., depth: 9 in. 23 cm.

(Excerpted from Antique Boxes, Tea Caddies, & Society, 1700-1880) Anglo-Indian boxes were made in India for the English expatriate residents and traders. Their forms were adapted to European needs, but their artistic input was rooted in the traditions of the Indian subcontinent. Anglo-Indian boxes were made from the earlier part of the eighteenth century and retained a high standard of quality well into the nineteenth century. The earliest examples, up to the 1820s, were usually commissioned pieces and, as such, they were of superior quality. After the first decades of the nineteenth century, Anglo-Indian boxes were imported to England more commercially, although not in any significant numbers until the middle of the century. Anglo-Indian boxes remained highly valued throughout the nineteenth century, to the extent that inexpensive copies of their designs were copied on late nineteenth and early twentieth century tins. See less