An Exotic and Unusual Indo-Portuguese Coromandel Wood and Hawksbill
An Exotic and Unusual Indo-Portuguese Coromandel Wood and Hawksbill
Turtleshell Mounted Box
With a brass lock and key
Early 19th century
Size : 23 cm high, 51 cm long, 41 cm wide – 9 ins high, 20 ins long, 16 ins wide
Turtleshell Mounted Box
With a brass lock and key
Early 19th century
Size : 23 cm high, 51 cm long, 41 cm wide – 9 ins high, 20 ins long, 16 ins wide
Luxury articles such as this were produced for the western market by skilled artisans along the Coromadel and Malabar coasts, and around Bengal and Gujarat. These craftsmen and carpenters had applied their traditional techniques to western decorative and furniture forms, often under the direction and influence of European merchants and traders. This fusion of western form with Indian materials and technique particularly occurred in the areas of India where there was a concentrated European colonial presence.
Sir Thomas Herbert visited Gujarat in the 1620's and described how Indian merchants 'all along the sea side pitch booths or tents and straw houses in great numbers, where they sell calicoes, chena setten, purcellan ware, scutores or cabinets of mother of pearle, of ebony, of ivory, agats, turquoises, heliotropes, cornelians'. ( 'Some Yeares Travels into Africa and Asia the Great' London 1638 pg 37 ).
Sir Thomas Herbert visited Gujarat in the 1620's and described how Indian merchants 'all along the sea side pitch booths or tents and straw houses in great numbers, where they sell calicoes, chena setten, purcellan ware, scutores or cabinets of mother of pearle, of ebony, of ivory, agats, turquoises, heliotropes, cornelians'. ( 'Some Yeares Travels into Africa and Asia the Great' London 1638 pg 37 ).
An Exotic and Unusual Indo-Portuguese Coromandel Wood and Hawksbill
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