A colonial tortoiseshell veneered casket with silver mounts
H. 18.5 x L. 25.2 x D. 12.1 cm
Until recently these caskets were often classified as Spanish or Portuguese but it has become clear that they were produced over a very wide geographic area under European patronage in workshops in India, Sri Lanka, Batavia, China, the Caribbean, and Central and South America in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Distinguishing regional characteristics are generally only found in the type of decoration of the mounts.
Part of the Indian Ocean and Indonesian Archipelago collections.
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