Rectangular silver filigree casket with hinged cover

 

Possibly India, Karimnagar, 18th century.

Silver, not marked.

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Height: 9.5 cm, width: 15 cm, depth: 10.4 cm Approximately 690 gram.

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Silver filigree from the East became quite popular in Europe in the early 17th century. Initially, most of it was imported into Europe through Lisbon, coming from Goa, Gujarat or Macao. Later in the 17th and early 18th century most silver filigree from the East arrived in Amsterdam, coming from the Dutch East Indies, Sumatra, Batavia, India/Karimnagar and China/Canton. The royal collectors in the West, Louis XIV

of France, Elector Frederik Wilhelm of Brandenburg, Amalia van Solms in the Netherlands and the Russian Tsars, Peter and Catherine the Great, obtained most of the silver filigree for their collections in Amsterdam. In the course of the 18th century the craze for silver filigree gradually died out, and little was still ordered in the East.