Bidspirit auction | Large, tortoiseshell and silver hexagonal

Large, tortoiseshell and silver hexagonal box with wooden interior. Indo-Portuguese work. Gujarat. 17th century. - The chest is in a typical Portuguese style which was made in India using various different materials including gold, ivory and mother-of-pearl. The motifs carved into the silver mounts which can be found in similar boxes are the same as those that can be seen in Gujarat mother-of-pearl, which suggests that the local silversmiths supplied the same material to craftsmen making tortoiseshell objects as well as those using mother-of-pearl, this being the same centre of production for both types of object. In travel journals written at the same time these boxes were made it is confirmed that these tortoiseshell objects were made in India under Portuguese patronage, and that they were much prized in Europe. The French merchant and traveller Francois Pyrard de Laval (1578-1623), for example, explained in his book “Voyage de Pyrard de Laval aux Indes orientales (1601-1611)” that the centre of the tortoiseshell market was Cambay, where the material was worked into women’s bracelets and very beautiful boxes and chests decorated with silver. Also, shell boxes with silver mounting are mentioned in contemporary Portuguese documents, both in India and in Portugal. For example, the inventory of a customs official in Diu dated 1546 included a tortoiseshell and silver strong box. Furthermore, a small tortoiseshell chest decorated with silver, and another flat, tortoiseshell chest decorated all over with silver were included among the gifts presented by the Henry the Cardinal King of Portugal (1512-80) to the Sultan of Morocco from 1577 to 1580. Similar examples can be found in the collection at the Victoria & Albert Museum, with inventory number M.10&A-1945, although in this case the silver mounting has incised decoration, and in the National Museum of Ancient Art in Lisbon. 11 x 22 x 12,5 cm. Bibliography: Amin Jaffer, Luxury Goods From India: the art of the Indian Cabinet-Maker, London : V&A, 2002.