Exceptional 19C Anglo Ceylonese Coromandel Box with Specimen Woods

PRESENTING A GORGEOUS AND EXCEPTIONALLY RARE 19C Anglo Ceylonese Coromandel Box with Specimen Woods.

ABSOLUTELY STUNNING 19th Century Anglo-Indian (or more accurately, an Anglo-Ceylonese) Box.

Made of rare and expensive Coromandel wood and inlaid on top with specimen exotic Asian woods, pewter, silver and bone.

The interior of the lid is likewise profusely inlaid with specimen woods in a hexagonal pattern, bone, ebony and pewter chevrons, over an ebony background with bone floral designs surrounding in the Galle style.

Box opens to reveal 2 trays on the interior, one on top of the other.

The box was a companion box for storing jewelry, etc.

The top tray is highly ornate with bone overlay which has been hand-painted using red and black lac (indelible) inks.

The second tray is more plain (for obvious reasons) and made from sandalwood.

It has its working key and all the brass fittings are of the highest quality and original.

It has a crack on the lid but this does not detract from its beauty or importance !!

Made circa 1880 in Ceylon (modern day Sri Lanka) in the time of the Raj, for export and sale to wealthy British visitors, Diplomats and Army officers.

This would have been a HIGHLY EXPENSIVE piece even when made.

Check out the matching Desk Companion Tray in this Section.

We have never before seen, another Anglo-Ceylonese Box with Specimen Wood inlays on the exterior of the lid. All others, have the specimen wood inlay on the interior side of the lid and on the inner trays. We have debated this with other Anglo-Indian/Ceylonese ‘experts’ who had questions about this. But we are fully satisfied (as they also now are) that this is fully original and authentic. The main ‘clue’, is the crack on the lid. The crack is replicated on the interior, meaning that the inlaid top was always there, as the lid cracked on both sides through age. If the inlay on the top was done later, then it would cover any crack.

BECAUSE OF IT’S RARITY, THIS BOX IS A MUSEUM QUALITY PIECE!

ANGLO-INDIAN AND CEYLONESE BOXES: Anglo Indian boxes were made in India for the English residents from the early part of the 18th century. They were brought back or sent back to England usually by the people who had commissioned them. From the beginning of the nineteenth century they were imported more commercially, although not in any significant numbers until the middle decades. They were very highly valued, especially the early ones, to the extent that the designs were copied on late 19th and early 20th century tins.

Anglo-Indian Boxes normally consist of 3 main types:-

(1) Most of the best and highest quality Anglo-Indian boxes in the 18th and 19th Centuries were made in Vizigapatam, India………renowned for its exquisite craftsmanship in using ivory and tortoiseshell and lac decoration. These are referred to as ‘Vizigapatam Boxes’.

(2) The Bombay area became famous in the 19th Century for its carving of sandalwood boxes and use of Sadeli Mosaic. These are often referred to ‘Sadeli Boxes’.

(3) Many boxes of exquisite quality and craftsmanship were made in Ceylon (modern day Sri Lanka) in the 19th Century. Ceylon was part of the British Indian Colony and was not a seperate Country at that time, hence, the boxes that were made in Ceylon are often categorized as Anglo-Indian. Many of the Anglo-Ceylonese pieces were made in the Goa Region using Porcupine Quill, Coromandel or Salamander wood, ivory, ebony and lac decoration. The Ceylonese lac work was often more colorful than the Vizigapatam classic use of black lac ink.(Lac ink was an indelible ink made from crushing Lac Beetles). Ceylonese boxes and furniture also became famous, due to the use of various exotic specimen woods in the decoration of their boxes and furniture. These specimen wood pieces are HIGHLY PRIZED AND HIGHLY DESIRABLE !!

This box falls into Category 3 above, SPECTACULAR AND RARE !!

COROMANDEL WOOD: Calamander wood or Coromandel wood is a valuable wood from India, Sri Lanka (Ceylon) and South East Asia. It is of a hazel-brown color, with black stripes (or the other way about), very heavy and hard. It is also known as Macassar Ebony or variegated ebony and is closely related to genuine ebony, but is obtained from different species in the same genus; one of these is Diospyros quaesita Thwaites, from Sri Lanka. The name Calamander comes from the local sinhalese name, ‘kalu-medhiriya’, which means dark chamber; referring to the characteristic ebony black wood. It is used in furniture, Luthiery and for sculpture.

Coromandel wood has been logged to extinction over the last 2 to 3 hundred years and is no longer available for new work in any quantity. Furniture in coromandel is so expensive and so well looked after that even recycling it is an unlikely source. A substitute, Macassar Ebony, has similar characteristics and to the untrained eye is nearly the same but it lacks the depth of colour seen in genuine Coromandel.

Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calamander_wood

CHECK OUT THE MATCHING ANGLO-CEYLONESE SPECIMEN WOOD DESK COMPANION TRAY ALSO IN THIS SECTION !

19C Anglo Ceylonese Coromandel Box with Specimen Woods.

Dimensions: 16.50″ Wide, 10.75″ Deep and 6.75″ High

Provenance: Bought at Auction in the UK from one of the best known UK Auction Houses.

Condition: Crack on the interior and matching crack on the exterior of the lid. Not uncommon for coromandel wood due to shrinkage. The crack has been filled with wax, but overall the box is in EXCEPTIONAL condition otherwise.

SALE PRICE NOW: $4,800