AN UNUSUAL MINIATURE WOVEN BRASS WIRE JEWELLERY BASKET (VEL PETTIYA)
Kandy, Sri Lanka, 18th - 19th century

Of compressed globular shape, resting on a convex base, rising to tapering shoulders, the hinged lid secured at the back with elongated mounts with cusped terminals and presenting a long key plate strap over the front together with lugs that allow a small padlock to be used, three 18th century-style hoop handles on the sides and top of the cover, weight 190gr, 6.5cm x 9.5cm, 7.5cm diam.

Vel pettiya baskets are a typical indigenous production of the Kingdom of Kandy in central Sri Lanka. These baskets were usually created for members of the Kandyan aristocracy and were made of woven canes with silver or brass mounts. They served as jewellery and keepsakes containers. This example is rather unusual, both for its miniature size and for the material of which is made (woven brass wire rather than vegetal fibre). Similar baskets but with less elaborate mounts were also produced in Indonesia, possibly introduced by colonial Portuguese and Dutch administrators from the Kandyan Kingdom in the 18th century. For a comparable example, please see A.K. Coomaraswamy, Mediaeval Sinhalese Art, 1956, plate XLIIIA.