Burmese Box with Elephant Motif

An orange-red box with painted bands and a tired, faded lid.

This lacquerware box with elephant motif is from Burma, and dates to the 20th century. Elephants have long been important in Burmese life, used for work in teak forests and regarded in Buddhist tradition as a noble and auspicious animal. A low rectangular lidded box in warm orange-red with painted bands of small floral and leaf motifs in yellow and green. The lid is flat with a decorated edge, and the surface shows rubbing and fading. It is 9 inches wide, 4 deep and 3 high.

Faded, flaky, and still wearing its best trim.