Anglo-Indian Ebony Dressing Box with Intricate Carvings

• Ebony - Ebony is a close grained timber, black in colour. It has a fine texture which can be polished to a high gloss, making it suitable for venereering, inlay and stringing and its use as solid timber is resticted to small decorative items and ornamental decoration, such as chess pieces and musical instrument parts. The term "ebonised" means "faux ebony", timber that has been darkened during the polishing process to resemble ebony.
• Sandalwood - Sandalwood is a heavy, yellow coloured and very fine-grained timber, which has a fragrance which lasts for many decades, and acts as a deterent to moths and insects.
  
  In the British colonial era, sandalwood was imported into Britain from India, and the wood also used within India for the manufacture of Anglo-Indian furniture.
  
  Becasue it does not have a distinct grain pattern, sandalwood was not used for the exterior surfaces of furniture, but was put to use for drawer and box linings, where the aroma was noticeable one the object was opened. it was also used to manufacture small objects (treen).
  
  Nowadays sandalwood is commercially grown with Australia the largest producer. As well as producing timber, oil is extracted for use in the manufacture of perfumes.
• Foliate - Decorated with leaves or leaf-like forms.

This item has been included into following indexes:

• Anglo-Indian Vizagapatam and sadeli boxes - sewing and other boxes 347
• oriental objects - boxes 1,853