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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Any Jewelry, post: 5268894, member: 2844&quot;]Gorgeous, Lark.</p><p>These are often called Zanzibar chests, and have several other names associated with different Arab countries. </p><p>There are similar chests and boxes with carnelian stones inlaid in floral brass decorations, those were made in Yemen.</p><p>If you google Zanzibar chest you will see more like yours.</p><p><br /></p><p>Both the Arab peninsula and Zanzibar are known for these chests, but the old ones without carnelians were mostly made in Baluchistan (present day Pakistan) for export to the Middle East.</p><p>Green is the colour of Islam, but I don&#039;t know if that is the reason for the paint.</p><p><br /></p><p>Zanzibar used to be a colony of Oman, and for a while it was the seat of the Omani empire. Omani ships went back and forth between the two parts of the empire carrying these chests, hence the name Zanzibar chest.</p><p>Yours could have ended up in Libya with one of many Arab families. North Africa was colonised by Arabs, and the elite of North African society is of Arab descent.</p><p><br /></p><p>These chests were not dowry chests specifically. Because traditional Middle Eastern households didn&#039;t have wardrobes, clothing, bed linen, etc was kept in chests and boxes.</p><p>Smaller boxes were used for dcuments and valuables although jewellery was sometimes kept with clothing. Maybe your smaller box is a valuables box. What is the size of the smaller one?</p><p><br /></p><p>So the slaves and servants couldn&#039;t steal precious silks and jewellery.<img src="styles/default/xenforo/smilies/wink.png" class="mceSmilie" alt=";)" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>If you want to know more about Omani Zanzibar and the world these boxes were used in and how, I can recommend the book &quot;Memoirs of an Arabian Princess&quot; by Emily Ruete. Emily Ruete was born in 1844 in Zanzibar as Sayyida Salama bint Said, daughter of the then sultan of Omani empire.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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