Lot 138. A carved ivory pen-box, Deccan, 17th century; 26.5 by 11.5 by 9cm. Estimate 4,000 — 6,000 GBP. Lot sold 12,500 GBP. Photo Sotheby's

the ivory body of rectangular form with a coffered lid, with four internal compartments, the exterior decorated with arcades of flowering plants bordered by bands of scrolling floral rosettes and palmettes, one panel showing a monkey, truncated palmette-form feet carved on the underside in low relief.

Provenance: Nicholas Woodbridge, Bath
Acquired in 1989.

Note: There is a similar pen-box in the Museum für Islamische Kunst, Berlin. A comparable arcade of polylobed cartouches bordered by scrolling lotus palmettes is found on a seventeenth-century Deccani box panel in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (see Pal 1981, p.80, nos.71,72).

Sotheby's. The Sven Gahlin Collection, London, 06 october 2015