VIZAGAPATAM, LATE 18TH EARLY 19TH CENTURY

This box is embellished with Calcutta vignettes, in which the buildings are dwarfed by the shrubs. It belongs to a group of exotic ivory- veneered furniture that was executed under the direction of the Dutch and English East India Companies at Vizagapatam, Andhra State on the Coromandel Coast for retail in Madras and Calcutta (A.K.H. Jaffer, 'The Furniture Trade in Early Colonial India', Oriental Art, vol. XVI, no. 1, Spring 1995, pp. 12-13). Its floral border on the top is similar to the border on a Vizagapatam miniature bureau-cabinet sold anonymously, in these Rooms, 12 November 1998, lot 157.