An Indian Marquetry Marvel
Although not the most valuable object that I own, this is one of my most precious pieces. This is my Great Grandmother’s small Anglo-Indian jewellery box, which she brought back from India after she and my Grandfather finished a period in the diplomatic corps during the Raj just before the Great War. It is precious to me because it holds some of the most tangible memories I have of my Great Grandmother and my Grandmother. This sat on my Great Grandmother’s dressing table and housed some of her everyday jewellery. I remember visiting her and watching her take out her pearls and cameos and glittering rings when she was getting ready to receive visitors or to go out. Even when I hold it now or hear the rich sounds of the box lid as it closes, in my mind I can still smell her violet and lily of the valley perfumes and her cold cream. When she died, my Grandmother inherited it and it sat on her dressing table, and I can hear her laugh as I played with the pearl necklaces, earrings and rings that she kept in there, including the Regency ebony and ivory earrings I called “Flora” and “Fauna”. The yellowing of the ivory is a sign of its advanced age, and its edges have been worn by many hands touching them over the last century: not least of all mine.
The jewellery box itself is an Anglo-Indian (Indian made but designed for the British market who lived in India during the Raj) made in the 1890s. It is fashioned from ebony and rosewood with the most exquisite hand-made geometric marquetry inlay of ivory and mother of pearl. The detail photos show how intricate the geometric pattern is, and how perfectly each piece is fitted. This might impress you even more when you think that the box itself is ten and a half centimetres long, by six and half centimetres wide and four and a half centimetres deep. The ebony frames to the hexagons on the lid are one millimetre thick, the vertical rosewood bands on the ivory edge of the lid are half a millimetre in width, the smallest triangles on the sides each have sides of one millimetre in length and the triangles around the flowers on the lid have sides less than half a millimetre in length: and all of this was made with precision by hand by a master artisan more than a century ago.
This year the FFF+ Group have decided to have a weekly challenge called “Snap Happy”. A different theme chosen by a member of the group each week, and the image is to be posted on the Monday of the week.
This week the theme, “geometry” was chosen by GG, Greenstone Girl.
Geometry is the part of mathematics that studies the size, shapes, positions and dimensions of things. Squares, circles and triangles are some of the simplest shapes in flat geometry. Cubes, cylinders, cones and spheres are simple shapes in solid geometry.
Marquetry is the art and craft of applying pieces of veneer to a structure to form decorative patterns, designs or pictures.
An Indian Marquetry Marvel
Although not the most valuable object that I own, this is one of my most precious pieces. This is my Great Grandmother’s small Anglo-Indian jewellery box, which she brought back from India after she and my Grandfather finished a period in the diplomatic corps during the Raj just before the Great War. It is precious to me because it holds some of the most tangible memories I have of my Great Grandmother and my Grandmother. This sat on my Great Grandmother’s dressing table and housed some of her everyday jewellery. I remember visiting her and watching her take out her pearls and cameos and glittering rings when she was getting ready to receive visitors or to go out. Even when I hold it now or hear the rich sounds of the box lid as it closes, in my mind I can still smell her violet and lily of the valley perfumes and her cold cream. When she died, my Grandmother inherited it and it sat on her dressing table, and I can hear her laugh as I played with the pearl necklaces, earrings and rings that she kept in there, including the Regency ebony and ivory earrings I called “Flora” and “Fauna”. The yellowing of the ivory is a sign of its advanced age, and its edges have been worn by many hands touching them over the last century: not least of all mine.
The jewellery box itself is an Anglo-Indian (Indian made but designed for the British market who lived in India during the Raj) made in the 1890s. It is fashioned from ebony and rosewood with the most exquisite hand-made geometric marquetry inlay of ivory and mother of pearl. The detail photos show how intricate the geometric pattern is, and how perfectly each piece is fitted. This might impress you even more when you think that the box itself is ten and a half centimetres long, by six and half centimetres wide and four and a half centimetres deep. The ebony frames to the hexagons on the lid are one millimetre thick, the vertical rosewood bands on the ivory edge of the lid are half a millimetre in width, the smallest triangles on the sides each have sides of one millimetre in length and the triangles around the flowers on the lid have sides less than half a millimetre in length: and all of this was made with precision by hand by a master artisan more than a century ago.
This year the FFF+ Group have decided to have a weekly challenge called “Snap Happy”. A different theme chosen by a member of the group each week, and the image is to be posted on the Monday of the week.
This week the theme, “geometry” was chosen by GG, Greenstone Girl.
Geometry is the part of mathematics that studies the size, shapes, positions and dimensions of things. Squares, circles and triangles are some of the simplest shapes in flat geometry. Cubes, cylinders, cones and spheres are simple shapes in solid geometry.
Marquetry is the art and craft of applying pieces of veneer to a structure to form decorative patterns, designs or pictures.