Objects & Boxes Artifacts

A Tibetan prayer box, its silver dented from travel. Antique objects and boxes from Africa and Asia here include baskets, lacquer and brass boxes, Chinese jade toggles, carved implements and scholar’s objects. Silver gao boxes from Nepal and Tibet, worked with the eight auspicious symbols, once held prayers or small deities carried close to the body. Ethiopian headrests of the Gurage, Oromo and Somali, each carved from a single piece of wood, protected elaborate hairstyles during sleep.

There are Chinese brushwashers, calligraphy brushes and an archaic hardstone bi disc, a Japanese lacquered letter box, framed Burmese fortune teller panels, a Tutsi agaseki basket, a Tuareg camel saddle, Bamenda bird-form pipes, a Baule royal fly whisk and a Yoruba Orisha Oko staff. Subcategories cover baskets, boxes, carved objects, jade and toggles, and scholar’s objects and calligraphy. Keep one on a desk to hold keys, or set an empty one on a shelf for the shape alone. Things made to be used, still waiting politely to be asked.