Featured The best "Anglo-Indian box" paper I've ever read

It's unbelievable to see this article mentions Monghyr, this is so rare and nobody knows what it's called. I did a post when I got my first Monghyr box, no surprises I had no luck on here or doing my own research for a few years. This is my collection so far, I would like to grow it but the prices are very high.

 

Whoooooo! Sweet! Note: things to keep your eyes open for at estate sales. I could have had a modern Mediterranean box today, but... modern. The quality wasn't good enough to bother.

It depends on the piece and on who's looking. Sometimes you can get lucky if they don't know what it is.

 

Thanks for the tip Rave re searching-this stuffs a great help !
Here's a quote from the Link-
'The box is of mahogany construction and veneered with highly figured coromandel, a type of ebony ,which got its name from the the Coromandel Coast in Tamil Nadu Southern India. It is also known as Macassar Ebony, Calamender wood, Golden Ebony.'
...and here's the Link (Second blurb below box pic)-
http://www.hygra.com/box/808JB/

 

I found precisely ONE Monghyr box when I googled just that. It was sold at Bonhams with an estimate of 1000+ GBP. No idea what it actually brought. I think Raver's is prettier.

https://www.bonhams.com/auction/153...id-ebony-wood-sewing-box-india-circa-1840-50/

 

Firstly thank you for saying my box looks better but I'm afraid the one in bonhams is far better, also the £1000-£1500 estimate was in 2007, today this would be it's price tag https://www.walpoleantiques.com/fine-monghyr-sewing-box

 

This one is cheap but I wouldn't recommend trying the restoration, I restored my one and it was a pig to do.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/126510721414

 

Whoo - double. That poor thing on eBay deserves someone to help it, but that's best left to a specialist with too much time on her/his hands.

 

Example of a bad, poorly done, mass produced box. Sadeli is well done but the carving is bad

 

Example of a very well done box both Sadeli and carving, it doesn't get better than this until the whole box is carved, not just panels.

 

Example of a totally carved box (bad photo)

 

Even the top one is better than what we normally see here.

 

May I ask where here is? I hope it's easy to see the difference. I did use my boxes to show, I know they can be worse. This is the one I bought the other day, it's on the restoring bench atm but for £15 who could argue it needing a little tlc https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/235795487882

 

This week I bought these as well,
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/326405368340
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/116325062039

 

Northeast USA. We get jack squat for good Indian pieces. I did see a real campaign chest in person once, but only once. We get a fair bit of the Hippie Trail style of export carving, but little of the good stuff.

 

Yeah, there's no doubt here in the UK we see far more than any other places in the world, including India. In fact I've never bought anything directly from India, it just doesn't exist over there for sale. I think the UK is spoilt for antiques, we tend to keep things, the Georgians and Victorians had more money at that stage in history than most countries, I suspect the US will be that way in a few 100 years, saying that I have bought from the US on a few occasions, even with postage and import tax it's still cheaper than buying in the UK. I don't know if they didn't know what is was or it's just less sort after in the US?

 

Probably both. I'd know "ooh that's good" if I saw it, but not how good. Most of what we get came in through Pier One Imports or similar - mass production. Even the old Pier One pieces are starting to be collected; some of their "junk" from the 70s and 80s is better than what's sold new.

 

https://www.liveauctioneers.com/ite...n-mughal-19th-c-portrait-miniature-of-a-woman
I use this site to see what's going on in the rest of the world and this item was the only thing I could see worth bidding on in the US.

 

It probably went for less than it should have, unless three Indians and a Brit went at it.

 

Sorry I didn't look at when it went out, when I posted the message it was still live with a bid of $80, $200 is about right for a portrait.