Indian Wood Tikka Box

Red-orange lid with worn edges gives this dark jar a warm, flushed face.

This carved and painted tikka box is from Maharashtra, India, and dates to the late 19th or early 20th century. It is carved wood & pigment. Wood carving has a long history in western India, and craftsmen there decorate small boxes with geometric patterns, flowers and figures, sometimes adding colour with pigment. Small jar with a low, flat-topped lid in red and orange paint with dark knob on top. The body is a tall, slightly tapering cylinder in deep brown with worn patches along the lower edge. Paint is chipped in several places. It is 3.8 inches high and 2 in diameter.

A rosy lid and a long, patient history of handling.