A LARGE KASHMIRI GILT AND LACQUERED PAPIER-MÂCHÉ LIDDED BOX
Kashmir, Northern India, 19th century

Of rectangular shape, resting on a flat base painted in dark blue, the outer sides and lid a carousel of gilt and polychrome-painted floral triumphs and courtly entertainment scenes including lavish banquets, female dancers, royal processions on elephant's back, and acrobatic hunting moves on horseback, the gently raised figural and floral decoration heavily indebted to the repertoire of Persian lacquers and paintings, and in line with the canons followed in the territories of the Indian Persianate, each rectangular decorative cartouche framed within a band of golden roundels against red ground, in the centre of the lid an octagonal star filled with a black inscription in Persian characters, the interior painted in red and enhanced with gilt flower heads, 8.5cm x 55cm x 41.4cm.