Object Description
This Anglo-Indian silver casket is inscribed on a central panel to the front with the following: ‘Presented to / Mr. A. L. Guildford, B.Sc. M.I.E.E. / By / The Officers and Staff of / The Bombay Electrical Supply and Transport / Undertaking as a Memento / On his Retirement / 22nd April 1949’. The casket thus represents a piece of Indian—and Anglo-Indian—interest. Moreover, its Art Deco influenced design grants the piece an additional importance.
The silver casket is rectangular in form with canted corners decorated with Art Deco motifs. The piece is adorned throughout with foliate moulding. Most interestingly, at front and back, figurative panels depict aspects of city life: buildings, trams, and buses. The hinged lid opens to reveal a velvet lined interior.