Description:
Important large Anglo Indian fully fitted sewing and writing box of pyramided shape veneered with ivory profusely inlaid with sadeli mosaic, the box having swan neck handles to the sides and standing on cast paw feet of unusual design. Inside the box is compartmentalized and fitted for sewing, with fragrant sandalwood and has supplementary lids and trays each veneered with ivory inlaid with sadeli,  circa 1845.
Provenance: sold in dispersal of contents of Manydown Park previous home of Jane Austen's momentary fiancée.  

Origin: India 

Circa: 1845

Materials: Sandalwood ivory ebony rosewood and metal. 

Size: 44.5 cm wide by 29 cm by 16 cm (including feet):  17.5 inches wide by  11.4 inches by  6.3  inches (including feet (including feet).

Condition: very good original condition. Small loses and blemishes which have been consolidated. Please look at large images which are accessed by clicking on the smaller. Working lock with original key.

The inlay is rich and complex, and yet remains totally controlled. A box of this high quality represents  hundreds of hours of master craftsman work.

The box opens to a complex interior.

The upper part is fully fitted for sewing with supplementary lids and turned ivory thread barrels, all profusely inlaid. 

There is a framed mirror in the lid  with a velvet covered compartment behind.

There is a drawer to the front which contains a fully fitted writing slope. The writing surface is covered with Tyrian purple velvet.

The fast, non-fading purple dye was an item of luxury trade, prized by Romans, who used it to colour ceremonial robes. Pliny the Elder described the dyeing process of two purples in his Natural History^[2]:

"'... the Tyrian hue ... is considered of the best quality when it has exactly the colour of clotted blood, and is of a blackish hue to the sight, but of a shining appearance when held up to the light; hence it is that we find Homer speaking of "purple blood'."

From Wikipedia we learn:

"Tyrian purple (Greek: πορφύρα, porphura), also known as royal purple or imperial purple, is a purple-red dye made by the ancient Canaanites/Phoenicians in the city of Tyre, from a mucus-secretion of the hypobranchial gland of a marine snail known as Murex brandaris or the Spiny dye-murex.  

A synthetic purple was not developed until the early 20th C.

 

Ivory, pewter, rosewood ebony and stained ivory were cut into faceted rods which were bound together to form geometric patterns. When the glue had set, the rods were sliced in transverse sections. This gave the maker a number of angled circular pieces in the original pattern. Several variations of patterns could be achieved by combining the materials in different ways. The ivory was sometimes dyed green as here to give an extra colour.

The ancient art of sadeli Mosaic is said to have been introduced from Shiraz in Persia via Sind to Bombay, a long time before the Anglo Indian boxes were made. It was a technique, which required a high degree of skill and patience. It was executed very lavishly, in that the frequent cuts wasted a great amount of the precious materials used. The workmanship was however more than commensurable to the value of the materials.

The superb craftsmanship is evident in the control of the patterns in the complex corner joints with mitered and specially shaped elements.

 

 The symmetry of the patterns is astonishing; this is strongly demonstrated by the sharpness of the points of the triangles.

 It is interesting to also note that the front is made of two pieces of ivory. The barely visible join running from the escutcheon to the drawer handle is evidence of complete mastery of materials.

Detail: cast paw feet of unusual design

There is a drawer to the front which contains a fully fitted writing slope. The writing surface is covered with Tyrian purple velvet.

The pen tray is curved and made of solid ebony.

 Detail: there are sandalwood risers for raising the writing surface to a slope.

The drawer is made of sandalwood which still retains its perfume. The construction uses had cut dovetail joints. The original craftsman's scribed marking line is just visible. 

 The orchestration of the pyramided top with tapered plains is truly amazing. The design works and is a delight in both a totality and in the minutia.  

Detail: one of the supplementary lids.  Inside the box is profusely inlaid with sadeli mosaic.

 

The box has a set of six turned ivory thread barrels and two cylinder shaped boxes and a further turned holder for a silk tape measure.  Each is decorated with a circle of  sadeli  mosaic.

 Detail of one of the cylinder boxes in situ. 

Detail of the inlay on the top of one of the turned circular boxes. The inlay combines ivory ebony rosewood and pewter.

The makers (reputed to be Persian) of Sadeli mosaic  displayed a total understanding of the qualities of the different materials they used. They combined substances, which can expand and contract according to atmospheric conditions with others, which are hard and unyielding. The result was a sharp definition of the lines and patterns, which made up the whole design.

Beneath one of the supplementary lids  there is a turned ivory bobbin with divisions for several coloured threads.

 The drawer is kept in place by a pin which goes through the facing to the right of the lock.

There is a further compartment in the lid behind the mirror which is lined with purple velvet.

The hinges are stamped P. Moore, Registered Sept. 1845. 

We have seen this hinge on another quality box, a tea chest:

www.hygra.com/tc/tcnam04.htm
Click on image or link.	Amboyna Veneered Tea Chest, Circa 1845.

 Inside the box was an Auction Catalogue which shows that the box was sold as part of the contents of Manydown Park in 1962.

Manydown Park witnessed an interesting literary incident in its past.

History records that on the night of Thursday 2 December 1802 when Jane and Cassandra were staying at Manydown Park, Harris proposed to Jane Austen. Jane accepted his proposal but the next morning decided to break the engagement off. That led to a confrontation ending in the Austen sisters demanding that their brother James must abandon his duties as a clergyman and escort them back to Bath.

Manydown Park, home of Harris Bigg-Wither 
who proposed marriage to Jane Austen. 
Engraving, GF Prosser, 1833.

http://www.jasa.net.au/japeople/biggwither.htm A

"Lot 469. An Indian inlaid ivory work-box with dome cover, 17in. x 11in."

 Very few craftsmen could have worked to such high standards, even allowing for perfect eyesight and steadiness of hand. Special sadeli  boxes found their way to the grand aristocratic houses in England . 

Queen Charlotte, the wife of George III owned three. 

The work spread to other centers in the Bombay Presidency and by the middle of the 19th century, an enterprising Parsee (Persian) introduced the work to Calcutta and sent some boxes to the 1851 London Great Exhibition. The Calcutta work consisted of sadeli patterns set into wood and ivory.