A RARE COMPLETE INDIAN SADELI INLAID WORK AND WRITING BOX 1800 - 1850

Unknown artist

BoneWoodIvoryPhotographic printSilverprint
Price on request

Zebregs & Röell - Fine Art - Antiques

• About the artwork
  A RARE COMPLETE INDIAN SADELI INLAID WORK AND WRITING BOX
  
  ​British India, Bombay (present-day Mumbai), early 19th century
  
  Micromosaic inlaid wood, with fitted ivory interior and tools, and silver fittings.
  
  H. 12.6 x W. 43.2 x D. 28.5 cm
  
  ​
  
  Note:
  
  Workboxes, portable writing desks, inkstands and jewellery boxes were among the variety of nineteenth-century items decorated with geometric micromosaic patterns, called sadeli. Although the generic term “Bombay boxes” is used for a range of boxes decorated in this fashion, production was not limited to Bombay, as Amin Jaffer points out (A. Jaffer, Furniture from British India and Ceylon, London 2001, p. 313). Sadeli boxes were popular souvenirs with travellers to India, as Mrs. Postans observed in the 1830s: “the liberality of homeward-bound friends has now rendered (mosaic work) so much appreciated in England, in the form of presentation workboxes, desks, watch-stands, and numerous other ornamental souvenirs”. Queen Charlotte owned three sadeli boxes “of Bombay work”(Jaffer 2001, p.314).
  
  The sadeli technique came to India from Shiraz in the sixteenth century. It consists of binding together lengths of geometrically shaped rods of diverse materials such as tin, copper, horn, ivory, sappan wood and ebony arranged in symmetrical geometric patterns. These rods are sliced through transversely and formed into thin sheets of repeating patterns that are laid over and glued to the wooden carcass (see Jaffer 2001, p.313).
• About the artist

  It might happen that an artist or maker is unknown.

  Some works are not to be determined by whom it is made or it is made by (a group of) craftsmen. Examples are statues from the Ancient Time, furniture, mirroirs, or signatures that are not clear or readible but as well some works are not signed at all.

  As well you can find the following description:

  •“Attributed to ….” In their opinion probably a work by the artist, at least in part

  •“Studio of ….” or “Workshop of” In their opinion a work executed in the studio or workshop of the artist, possibly under his supervision

  •“Circle of ….” In their opinion a work of the period of the artist showing his influence, closely associated with the artist but not necessarily his pupil

  •“Style of ….” or “Follower of ….” In their opinion a work executed in the artist’s style but not necessarily by a pupil; may be contemporary or nearly contemporary

  •“Manner of ….” In their opinion a work in the style of the artist but of a later date

  •“After ….” In their opinion a copy (of any date) of a work of the artist

  •“Signed…”, “Dated….” or “Inscribed” In their opinion the work has been signed/dated/inscribed by the artist. The addition of a question mark indicates an element of doubt

  •"With signature ….”, “With date ….”, “With inscription….” or “Bears signature/date/inscription” in their opinion the signature/ date/ inscription has been added by someone other than the artist

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