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Description:
Ref: 753SB http://hygra.com/box/753SB/ 

Antique Anglo Indian, Vizagapatam, buffalo horn, fitted sewing box. The radiating horn is molded and carved achieving a complex dramatic shape. This is the Art of working with horn: 
Created in small hierarchiced  workshops: buffalo horn  was imported from nearby Jeypore Zamindari. 
These unnamed craftsmen had learned how to make a product which the English market would buy.  "Decorative artifacts were made by several craftsmen in 6 different teams working for over 8 to 9 hours a day for a month."

 Large horns have been cut, softened by boiling then shaped by scraper, lathe, and hand with abrasive. A straight grained rosewood box with thick sides is first created. It is then shaped; the tapers are in the construct.  

The box is built from elements, some manufactured by others in the group. The shape is evolved from the English interpretation of the Classical art they were being exposed to.    The Indians created objects which want to walk across the floor to meet you.

Origin: Vizagapatam, India;  Circa: 1835 ; Materials: Buffalo horn, sandalwood  on a rosewood structure.

Size:  33cm wide by 24cm by 21.5cm:   13 inches wide by  9.5  inches by 8.5  inches.

Condition: good overall; working lock and key; some cracking to horn see images

Keywords: Sewing box, horn, buffalo horn, Vizagapatam, Jeypore Zamindari, Anglo Indian, sandalwood,

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boxes@hygra.com

a  BOX with Attitude.

Group 1
Involves the planning and    sanding sheets of wood.     Involves marking and    cutting out of dovetails.           


Assembling the boxes.
Artisans cut ivory into panels and strips, some of which are mounted on the box using animal glue.
Engravers incised designs on strips of veneer

 

The craftsmen who made this box have pushed the materials to the extreme to achieve this dramatic shape. The radiating horn top is surmounted by a turned and carved knob which is built in three layers. 

The inside has a lift out sandalwood tray with horn edges and four radiating horn lids with turned horn handles.

There is a further compartment in the lid.

 

A British furniture factory
was established Vizagapatam  in 1683
which was taken over by French
1757 and recaptured the following
year.

 

 

The sandalwood tray with tapering sides is constructed with comb joints.

 

The knob is layered out of centered geometry.

The topmost has  14 petals; that below has 14 too. The petals are brought to shape by scraping and carving. 

The petals are all slightly different, as are things in nature.

 

, 14, 28, and always slightly out of line. 

These forms were created by looking at the nature around.

There is some cracking to the horn.

The sewing tray 

The sewing is constructed from  from solid sandalwood. 

The divisions are solid sandalwood too.

All is faced with horn.

There are five lidded compartments. 

 

Eight of the spaces are for thread reels. 

Four lids are radiating horn with turned horn knobs.

A tray for a  turned horn thimble and another for the tape-measure.

There are little silver handles on the sides for lifting the tray.

Everything is faced with horn.

The lock and the hinges are silvered.

 

a flattened sheet of horn has been then lathe mounted and had its circular shape created. It is then carved, and filed, 

The design defies fast work. The divisions of each concentric circle are out of line with each other in an evolve.

A compartment for?

presentation. It is lined with sandalwood. I do not understand how wood so old still gives out its perfume. 

The shape. 

The whole is somehow decadent. The reflections are so evocative.

The top knob in itself an artwork: two turned and scraped layers in a design which is an abstraction of a flower. 

The top has the radiating tapered level; each panel of horn has been flattened glued to its surface. and then carved and scraped to shape.

The cavetto molding below has a whole sequence of other construction problems to resolve.

The knob made and polished is put away till the box is made.