PROBABLY MUGHAL INDIA, CIRCA 18TH CENTURY

While the art of cutting steel is usually associated with Safavid Iran, this box can be shown to be Moghul in origin. Like Iran, India possessed a flourishing steel industry in the 16th-18th centuries, attested by many surviving objects, particularly arms and armour. That metal decoration in general was cut in India is known from a number of objects. One is a steel vambrace attributed to the late 17th century Golconda in the Deccan (now in the Jagdith and Kala Mittal Museum of Indian Art, Hyderabad, inv. no. 76.1526, in: The Indian Heritage, Court Life and Arts under Mughal Rule, London, 1982, p. 137, no. 453). Two other Deccani metal objects with cut decoration are a bronze rahl (Quran stand), probably from Ahmadnagar and attributed to the late 16th century (Collection Mian, Bashir Wali Mohamed, London published in: India, Art and Culture 1300-1900, New York, 1985, pp. 284-285, no. 189) and a gilded copper calligraphic hawk-standard (Victoria and Albert Museum, London, India, op.cit., pp. 324-325, no. 220). These objects comprise a degree of fine workmanship that would have been needed to cut the decoration of our piece.

As a shape our box can be compared to a silver openwork box (pandan) of oblong form and with pyramidal lid attributed to the Portugese colony of Goa, now in a private collection (Mughal Silver Magnificence (XVI-XIXth C.), Brussels, 1987, p. 144, no. 209). The Indian provenance is also indicated by the use of mica as a backing material for the openwork panels. This material comes from the Himalayas; its accessability for Indian craftsmen is well-attested by the number of 19th century Company School miniatures painted on this surface.