Round box, carved ivory with silver mounts, Sri Lanka, mid 17th century.

Round box, carved ivory with silver mounts (lock and handle).

Purchased from Miss Thornhill Bushby, 23, The Boltons, S.W

"The lid and base of the box are each turned and carved from single pieces of ivory. Their design and decoration exemplify the melding of Dutch and Sinhalese decorative traditions in late seventeenth-century Ceylon. The shape of the box is indigenous, as is the complex pattern of scrolling vines worked with conventional representations of Sinhalese figures (nan-lata-vela). However, the flowers they produce are of a type popularized in the East Indies by the Dutch and represented on furniture, textiles and silver from the Dutch East India Company's (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie) Asian territories. At front centre, on the lid, is a seated figure probably a tree spirit - wearing a triple-tiered headdress. Beneath him, on the base, and at other places on the box, are female figures, similarly seated. Also evident on the base are kinnaras, mythic creatures with the upper body of a woman and the lower body of a bird, with a voluminous, scrolling tail. Kinnaras may be likened to sirens, and according to legend lived in the upper reaches of the Himalayas, near the heavens. The Rupavaliya, a Sanskrit art treatise of undetermined age that formed the basis of Sinhalese art, explains that this creature 'hath a tuft of hair on the head, a garland around the neck, a human body, and singeth melodiously; hath a human face and hands, but the nether part like that of a bird, with wings; a face fair and radiant, a neck graceful as Brahma's'.
Amin Jaffer, Luxury Goods From India: the art of the Indian Cabinet-Maker, London : V&A, 2002, pp.52-53, ill. ISBN: 1 85177 381 9.

Historical significance: "For centuries Ceylon was influenced by the artistic and cultural traditions of South India. The fact that South Indian craftsmen were working in the same style at home and in Ceylon has sometimes made it difficult to distinguish between articles made in the two places. However, the base and underside of the box are coloured with dye that is distinctive to Sinhalese Buddhist ritual ivory objects, suggesting that this box was made in Ceylon, which has a large Buddhist population, rather than South India, which is largely Hindu."
Amin Jaffer, Luxury Goods From India: the art of the Indian Cabinet-Maker, London : V&A, 2002, pp.52-53, ill. ISBN: 1 85177 381 9.

The purpose of this round box is not known. However, the fact that the lid and base are each turned and carved from single pieces of ivory, and secured together with richly-worked silver mounts, indicates that this box was intended for a discerning consumer. It is carved with scrolling vines and flowers interspersed with human and mythical figures.

IS.13-1896