Object Description
A Victorian ormolu and Jasperware cameo mounted coromandel jewellery casket, Circa 1880 in date.
The rectangular dome-topped casket features Gothic revival brass mounts tooled with scrolling foliage which frame a central cartouche inset with a decorative Wedgwood Jasper cameo panel depicting the Marriage of Cupid.
The casket has been newly lined in pale blue suede.
Complete with working lock and key.
It is a lovely piece which will make an unforgettable gift.
Condition:
In really excellent condition, please see photos for confirmation.
Dimensions in cm:
Height 9 x Width 26 x Depth 17
Dimensions in inches:
Height 3 inches x Width 10 inches x Depth 7 inches
Coromandel wood or Calamander wood
is a valuable wood from India, Sri Lanka and South East Asia. It is of a hazel-brown color, with black stripes (or the other way about), very heavy and hard. It is also known as Macassar Ebony or variegated ebony and is closely related to genuine ebony, but is obtained from different species in the same genus; one of these is Diospyros quaesita Thwaites, from Sri Lanka. The name Calamander comes from the local sinhalese name, ‘kalu-medhiriya’, which means dark chamber; referring to the characteristic ebony black wood.
Coromandel wood has been logged to extinction over the last 2 to 3 hundred years and is no longer available for new work in any quantity. Furniture in coromandel is so expensive and so well looked after that even recycling it is an unlikely source. A substitute, Macassar Ebony, has similar characteristics and to the untrained eye is nearly the same but it lacks the depth of colour seen in genuine Coromandel.
Our reference: A3377