19th century Anglo-Indian wooden box fitted with various compartments finely hand carved.
The top is finely hand carved with the Taj Mahal.
The interior with removable hand carved nine-lidded compartments, the front cover has a mirror, the whole exhibiting very fine workmanship.
This fine late Victorian Anglo-Indian box from India is in great condition for it age.
A beautiful example of an Anglo-Indian fine art box raised on brass feet.
Mughal style box with wonderful condition throughout, circa 1870.
History of the Anglo-Indian Boxes
Beginning in the early part of the 18th century, Indian artisans made what came to be known as Anglo-Indian boxes for the English residents living in India, who eventually brought or sent them back to England. At the beginning of the 19th century, India began exporting these boxes commercially, although not in any significant numbers until the 1850s. People valued them so highly that manufacturers of tins copied the designs on them in the late 19th and early 20th century.
Anglo-Indian boxes fall into four groups: Rosewood or ebony boxes inlaid with ivory;
English traders discovered the rich woods and intricate workmanship of Indian artisans, so colonial government officials began to recognize the work of the Indian artists and craftsmen as a source for satisfying the need for furniture and boxes, which would both serve to enhance English households in India. This gave rise to the cabinetmaking workshops in Vizagapatam between Calcutta and Madras.
Craftsmen made the first boxes to be decorated with Sadeli mosaic incised to give further definition to the decoration, directly inlaid into the wood. The shape of the early boxes was either sloping at the front with a flatter section at the back, reminiscent of English writing slopes, or rectangular. Artisans inlaid the borders with stylized floral scrolls and the centers with a single floral motif following a circular or oval symmetrical or asymmetrical pattern.
