PROBABLY SINDH, INDIA, 18TH OR FIRST HALF 19TH CENTURY

This turned wooden box is decorated with coloured natural resin, or lac, which has a long history of use in the arts of the India. The box was held in a lathe and the lac was pressed against the surface of the wood, heating and softening to form a layer of colour as the box revolved. Typically lighter colours were applied first and darker colours on top. The intended design is then carefully incised through the upper layers revealing the design in the lighter colours below, as here. A similar box in the Victoria and Albert museum of more basic decoration was acquired at the 1851 Great Exhibition as 'modern' work from Sindh (12&A-1852). The ware on our box would suggest a similar or slightly earlier dating although perhaps not as early as another comparable lacquered turban box of figural design, dated to the early 18th century, sold in these Rooms, 8 April 2008, lot 281.