800°/°° filigree silver case resting on three feet stylizing - Lot 5

800°/°° filigree silver case resting on three feet stylizing fish. The body with moldings, sockets and compartments is entirely filigree with scrolls, foliage and foliage. The grip is formed by a handle with convex scrolls overhanging the coffered lid. The inward-curving lower part rests on four ball feet, later raised by three fish. Dutch East Indies, Batavia (Indonesia), 18th century 12.8 x 12.5 cm - Weight : 172.1 g Provenance: - Bonhams December 19, 2017, lot 246 (sold for £1,375 inc. Premium) The exact origin of filigree caskets remains a matter of debate, given that the filigree technique has been widely used throughout the world, from Europe to Asia, since Antiquity. Nevertheless, several factors point to an Indonesian provenance for certain specimens, notably the close trade relations between the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and the archipelago in the 17th century. With this in mind, Jan van Campen, in his study entitled "Een kleine ronde draadwerkse doosie" en andere voorwerpen van zilverdraadwerk uit Azië, published in the journal Aziatische Kunst (March 31, 2001, pp. 36-53), identifies a corpus of filigree objects that he links to the city of Batavia (now Jakarta), then the administrative and commercial capital of the VOC. Among these is a set of small boxes whose typology and decoration are closely comparable to the example presented here. Originally, these objects would have been conceived as betel boxes, an essential accessory in Southeast Asian social and ritual practices. Once in the Netherlands, these exotic objects were often reinterpreted according to European tastes and customs, and it is likely that many of them were converted into tea chests, in response to the growing fashion for tea consumption in Europe during the Age of Enlightenment.