This slide-top box, probably designed to hold cigarettes, was made in the late Nineteenth or early Twentieth Century in Ceylon (now called Sri Lanka). During the British Colonial years, Sinhalese craftsmen made these boxes of porcupine quills and inlaid bone-chip "dots." Originally, such objects were made for local use. But they caught-on with the occupying Brits who bought them to take back to England with them.
Such quills are shed, naturally, from the porcupine. Dropped quills can easily (and humanely) be collected by the craftsmen who cut and use them in their works.
Click on the photo above to learn more about this handsome box.
Though our Greenwich Village store is now permanently closed, LEO Design is still alive and well! Please visit our on-line store where we continue to sell Handsome Gifts (www.LEOdesignNYC.com).
We also can be found in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania at The Antique Center of Strabane (www.antiquecenterofstrabane.com).
Or call to arrange to visit our Pittsburgh showroom (by private appointment only). 917-446-4248