Casket
maker
Unknown
Dateabout 1600
Place MadeGujarat, India, South Asia
MediumWood coated with colored resin and inlaid with mother-of-pearl
Dimensions19.5 x 20 x 19.5 cm (7 11/16 x 7 7/8 x 7 11/16 in.)
ClassificationsBoxes
Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Accession numberF30c10
eMuseum ID720766
EmbARK ObjectID14843
Previous Number839
TMS Source ID3525
Last Updated11/9/24
Status
Not on viewWeb CommentaryThis casket is made of wood covered with colored resin and inlaid with mother-of-pearl. Although it was acquired in 1899 by Isabella Stewart Gardner as a Venetian work of the 17th or 18th century, it is actually Indian and at least a century older. Its form, materials, and decorations are closely related to caskets from the Indian state of Gujarat, which is on the western coast of India and a range of objects decorated with mother-of-pearl during the 16th and 17th centuries. At this time, Gujarati mother-of-pearl objects were produced both for local consumption, as well as for export to the Middle East and Europe. The precise origin of this type of rectangular casket with a beveled lid remains unclear. However, it may have its roots in Chinese decorative arts from as early as the 10th century. The form was then adopted in different regions throughout Asia. Gujarati caskets can be distinguished from earlier Chinese, Korean, and Timurid caskets by the plinth with bracket feet, which one can see in this casket.
BibliographyNotesGilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston, 1935), p. 276. (as perhaps Venetian, 17th or 18th century)
Pedro Moura Carvalho. Luxury for Export: Artistic Exchange between India and Portugal around 1600. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 2008), pp. 38-39, no. 5. (as Gujarati, about 1600)
Pujan Gandhi. "Isabella Stewart Gardner's travel Albums through India" in Diana Seave Greenwald and Casey Riley (ed.). Fellow Wanderer: Isabella Stewart Gardner's Travel Albums. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 2023), p.106, fig. 11.
Pedro Moura Carvalho. Luxury for Export: Artistic Exchange between India and Portugal around 1600. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 2008), pp. 38-39, no. 5. (as Gujarati, about 1600)
Pujan Gandhi. "Isabella Stewart Gardner's travel Albums through India" in Diana Seave Greenwald and Casey Riley (ed.). Fellow Wanderer: Isabella Stewart Gardner's Travel Albums. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 2023), p.106, fig. 11.
ProvenanceNotesPurchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner from the antiques dealers Moisè Dalla Torre and Co., Venice for about 104 lire on 5 September 1899.
