Estimate

18.000 - 25.000

Session 2

15 April 2021

Hammer Price

Description

Tortoiseshell, ivory and silver coated exotic wood carcass
Carved decoration of foliage scrolls simulating vines and tendrils
Crimson silk velvet lining in the European taste
inner lid coated in fine tortoiseshell plates
Repousse and chiselled silver hardware
Ceylon, mid-17th century
Unmarked in compliance with Decree-Law 120/2017, art. 2º, nº.2 C

11x32x14 cm

Category

Objects

Additional Information

Published in AA.VV. São Roque Antiguidades, 2007, pp.244-245
Literature:
Alan Chong et al., Devotion and Desire. Cross-cultural art in Asia. New Acquisitions, Singapore, Asian Civilisations Museum, 2013.
Alan Chong, Sri Lankan Ivories for the Dutch and Portuguese, in Journal of Historians of Netherlandish Art, 5.2, 2013.

Most likely designed as a jewellery safe box, this object is an obvious statement of Sinhalese artistry and creativity in adapting ancestral craft techniques for the production of typically European typologies, that were introduced to Ceylon, in the early 1500s, by the Portuguese.
Little is known about the exact location where this box was crafted but, most certainly, it originates from one of the major trading outposts along the coast of Ceylon, perhaps Colombo, Galle or Matara. It is important to consider that these typologies, as well as other luxury items, were produced for wealthy European clienteles, such as the Dutch, to whom Ceylonese commissions are often associated.
This box sophisticated decoration, meticulously carved onto the ivory plaques, adopts a complex pattern of vines and tendrils interspersed with small birds. This type of composition is analogous to the one seen on the borders and drawer fronts of a small group of ivory writing boxes and ventós depicting Adam and Eve.
According to Brohier and Jan Veenendall – one of the authors who studied this particular production – this type of anti-clockwise foliage scroll is known as “recalcitrant spiral motif”, a stalk or stem element associated to the “universal seed”, and its adoption in this specific group of Adam and Eve pieces would complement the meaning of that Genesis figuration, by conveying nature’s bloom through the Creation of mankind.
The box is lined in crimson silk velvet, in the European taste, while the inner lid is veneered in fine mottled tortoiseshell plaques. The repousse and chiselled decorative silver mounts include the foliage scroll ornamented corner pieces, the hook latch and the floral chiselled hinges, perhaps of European manufacture. The exceptional ivory carving fineness, as well as the box proportions, turn this object into a major and unique example of this Sinhalese export production.


Literature:
Alan Chong et al., Devotion and Desire. Cross-cultural art in Asia. New Acquisitions, Singapore, Asian Civilisations Museum, 2013.
Alan Chong, Sri Lankan Ivories for the Dutch and Portuguese, in Journal of Historians of Netherlandish Art, 5.2, 2013.
Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, Mediaeval Sinhalese Art, New Dheli, Munsharam Manoharlal, 1956.
JAFFER, Amin, Luxury Goods from India. The Art of the Cabinet-Maker, London, V&A Publications, 2002.
Maria da Conceição Borges de Sousa, et al., Vita Christi. Marfins Luso-Orientais (cat.), Lisboa, Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, 2013.
Jayadeva Tilakasiri, Ivory Carving of Sri Lanka, in Arts of Asia, 4, 1974, pp. 42–46.

Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, Mediaeval Sinhalese Art, New Dheli, Munsharam Manoharlal, 1956.
JAFFER, Amin, Luxury Goods from India. The Art of the Cabinet-Maker, London, V&A Publications, 2002.
Annemarie Jordan Gschwend e Johannes Beltz, Elfenbeine aus Ceylon: Luxusgüter für Katharina von Habsburg (1507–78) (cat.), Zürich, Museum Rietberg, 2010.
Maria da Conceição Borges de Sousa, et al., Vita Christi. Marfins Luso-Orientais (cat.), Lisboa, Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, 2013.
Jayadeva Tilakasiri, Ivory Carving of Sri Lanka, in Arts of Asia, 4, 1974, pp. 42–46.