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A fine quality porcupine Quill box from Matara on the southern coast of Ceylon (Sri Lanka)

This box has the classic motif of the double small dots above and below larger dots along the frieze. It also has nice quality blond quills, none of which are missing.

Height 3 1/4ins  8.3cm
Width 8 3/4ins 22cm
Depth 6 1/4ins 16cm

These rare antique boxes originated from the tropical Island of Ceylon, they tend to date to the second half of the 19th century. They seem to have been widely produced, however two areas in the Southern Territory seem to have excelled at the manufacture and production of the finest boxes. There are few antiques that can be pinpointed so well to a area of production, however these boxes often have elaborate decoration on the interiors around a name. ‘Ceylon’, ‘Galle’ and ‘Matara’ are among the most commonly found. Galle and Matara are both important towns along the southern coast of Ceylon, they were and still are busy trading posts. This export trade must have been why production was focused in these areas.

Map showing Southern Ceylon, including Galle and Matara. Colombo is located at the top left of this image.

The range and quality of the porcupine quill boxes varies hugely, with the crudest forms being of small scale with large sections of quill and poorly interspersed bone dots. On the other hand, the finest boxes use well chosen quills placed in delicate chevroned patterns, or carefully chosen for their quality of consistent colour to achieve a overall blond appearance. The interiors of the finer boxes are also often finished with red dye used to highlight the smaller details such as decorative circles or the curve of an elephants ear.

A very fine porcupine box from Matara - Sold

Boxes with the name ‘Matara’ stamped inside tend to be of a finer quality and in particular have a signature style of placing small dots above and below larger dots along the frieze. Matara boxes tend also to have a raised lid which is again another extra embellishment not seen on other boxes. Peculiar  to Matara is a writing slope box design, which is quite large, decorated with quills on all sides and with elaborate bone inlay on the interiors. These often have MATARA or MATURA written in dots along the pen tray. There is another quite particular group of boxes that do not have any reference to a town or place, they are normally decorated with oblong panels on the interiors and sometimes retain the lidded trays. It is hard to place these with any accuracy, however the techniques used are close to the other boxes mentioned, except the tops have up to five straight bands of quills.

It is not clear who these boxes were made for as I have not found any actually in Sri Lanka, the majority seem to be in the UK, having seen few in Europe. There are many in America, but I am not sure if these were shipped from Ceylon or from Europe during the 20th century. Their decorative charm and casual formality lend themselves to use in decorative schemes. They are wonderful decoration as a group, or if stacked one on top of the other.