An Indian Filigree Cabinet / Casket at the Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon.

 

A Filigree Cabinet / Casket at the Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon.

Silver and Silver Gilt Filigree.

No size given - approx 9inches wide.

Photographed by the author April 2018.

The workmanship appears to be Indian utilising the comma shaped double twisted wire elements within a rectangular gilded wire frame.

It appears early and was probably manufactured in Cuttack, Orissa in the 17th/ 18th century.

I have previously addressed Silver Filigree work from Karimnagar see -

https://antiqueeuropeanfiligree.blogspot.com/2023/01/indian-filigree-silver-tray-and.html

I will return to it again in due course.

The very fine filigree is made up of twisted silver wire not immediately obvious.

The origin of these pieces is still unclear and is frequently given as India (Goa, Deccan or Karimnager) or Batavia (formerly Jakarta in modern day Indonesia).

As yet I am unaware of any piece of silver filigree described as Batavia or South East Asian (or Goan) with a provenance directly back to the manufacturer. That is not to say that it wasn't manufactured there - my theory is that emigrant Dutch craftsmen utilised local labour.

Hugo Miguel Crespo of Lisbon University assures me that there is no evidence of any filigree manufacture in Goa.

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A Silver Gilt and Silver Filigree Writing Box? and Tray perhaps related to the cabinet above.

 Salar Jung Museum.

 

 

Essay from the Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge - Vol 4 October 2005.

 This essay suggests that Mr Kadarla Ramayya introduced the manufacture of filigree at Karamnagar about 160 years ago.

 The first reference I can find to Kadarla Ramayya and filigree at Karimnager is in 1972 and repeats the assertions in this essay - so perhaps not entirely to be trusted.

 

https://nopr.niscpr.res.in/bitstream/123456789/8525/1/IJTK%204(4)%20386-391.pdf

 

The two objects below here are in the Salar Jung Museum in Hyderabad, India.

 

They are perhaps 19th Century but it is possible they could be earlier and that they did not originate in Karimnagar but came from Cuttack (Kattack), Orissa, but the workmanship appears very close to known objects from Karimnager.

Currently no size available.

 

Images from: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=2704128413135849&set=a.1556996821182353

I have posted already on this box see -

https://antiqueeuropeanfiligree.blogspot.com/2023/02/karimnagar-some-19th-century-silver.html

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Salar Jung Museum Silver Gilt and Silver Filigree Salver.

The workmanship techniques are very close to the Gulbenkian Filigree Cabinet (above).

Currently no sizes available and it is therefore it is not immediately obvious whether this piece is closely related, but it is possible that they were part of a two piece set.

https://salarjungmuseum.in/Indian-Silver.html