A fine ivory veneered cabinet for the Portuguese market Ceylon, 17th Century


of rectangular form with two drawers to front, mounted on each side with intricately carved ivory panels, the ivory carved to the top with a central rectangular panel depicting a medallion with an eight-petalled rosette to centre amidst scrolling floral vines, the back with a central rectangular panel of scrolling floral vines, with flowerheads in each corner, the sides and drawers with further panels of scrolling floral vines, each drawer with central flowerhead motif with applied turned ivory handle to centre also decorated with a flowerhead, the borders of the panels decorated with undulating flowerhead and foliate design, on four possibly 19th Century turned ivory bun feet 17.8 x 25.5 x 19 cm.
|Finely carved ivory caskets produced in Ceylon during the Portuguese era in the 16th and 17th Centuries were highly sought after by Europeans. The Ceylonese workshops which specialised in ivory caskets, such as the present lot, produced their work in a style which assimilated traditional Sinhalese modes of decoration with those derived from European forms. Significant early examples of the type found their way into the collections of European royal and princely families related to the Portuguese Queen, Catherine of Austria. A related example in the Victoria and Albert Museum, known as the Robinson Casket was produced as a diplomatic gift to commemorate the King of Kotte's conversion to Christianity and the birth of an heir to the king of Portugal (see Anna Jackson and Amin Jaffer (edd.) Encounters, the Meeting of Asia and Europe 1500-1800, p. 86, no. 6. 10)