Vintage handmade sadeli anglo indian micro mosaic Persian bone inlaid wood hexagon box with hand painted scene of a musical trio on the 2024 top

Vintage handmade sadeli anglo indian micro mosaic Persian bone inlaid wood hexagon box with hand painted scene of a musical trio on the top

The repeating geometric patterns of Sadeli Mosaic are what give it beauty and richness. This decorative technique is a type of micro mosaic featuring repeating geometric patterns. A highly skilled craft, it has had a long history in India and the Middle East with early examples dating back to the 16th century. In the 1800s, it 2024 became popular as a decoration on a variety of boxes, card cases, and chess boards imported from India. Since Bombay became a center of making them, they became known as Bombay boxes.

The ancient art of Sadeli Mosaic is said to have been introduced from Shiraz in Persia via Sind to Bombay, a long time before Indian boxes appeared.

Beginning in the early part of the 18th century, Indian artisans made what came to be known as Anglo-Indian boxes for the English residents living in India, who eventually brought or sent them back to England. At the beginning of the 19th century, India began exporting these boxes commercially, although not in any significant numbers until the 1850s. People valued them so highly that manufacturers of tins copied the designs on them in the late 19th and early 20th century.

4 inches long x 1.5 inches tall