Boxes

A brass hinge, a peacock on the lid, a soft click. Antique boxes here come from India, Japan, China and Tibet, with Tuareg leather boxes from the Sahara and Kuba boxes from the Congo. Indian tikka boxes, carved and painted in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh, held the colored powder for the forehead mark. Japanese jubako are tiered lacquer food boxes, stacked for picnics and the New Year meal, and come here with crane, tortoise, bamboo and floral designs.

Brass chapati boxes and chased silver boxes from Rajasthan, Bengali brass boxes with peacocks, a lidded betel box from Andhra Pradesh and a stupa-form box on wheels from Maharashtra share shelves with lacquered boxes from Shanxi, a Tibetan copper gao box in its cloth bag, tooled Tuareg leather and a Kuba crescent-form box. Set a lidded box on a bedside table or stack lacquer on a bookshelf. Whatever goes inside, the box will be the better story.