Toilet box; India, 19th century.

Toilet box; India, 19th century.
Ivory plated with a palace engraved on the lid and on all four sides. The interior conceals a mirror.
Labeled SOCARD, Place de l'Herberie, Lyon.
Pieces of a mahjong game are included.
Measurements: 9,5 x 31 x 24 cm.

Box or chest made of engraved ivory plaques, decorated on its four sides and on the hinged lid with a detailed representation of a palace. The carving work is of remarkable delicacy, and reflects the craftsmanship of the workshops of the Indian subcontinent during the nineteenth century, the period to which this piece belongs. When opened, the interior reveals a mirror, suggesting a possible use as a dressing table or refined storage box, associated with domestic environments of high social standing.
The piece stands out not only for its practical function, but also for its strong ornamental value. The aesthetics of the ensemble, characterized by the symmetry and detail of the architectural scenes, responds to the taste for exoticism and precision that fascinated European collectors in the 19th century. Proof of its circulation in the Western market is the label it preserves, corresponding to the merchant Socard, established in the Place de l'Herberie in Lyon.
The box is accompanied by several mahjong game pieces, which reinforces the playful and decorative character of the set and adds an intercultural dimension that underlines the nineteenth-century fascination with Asian objects in the context of bourgeois and colonial collecting. This work is thus part of the phenomenon of material orientalism, in which the object, beyond its original function, acquires a new reading as a symbol of sophistication and exoticism.