Box

* Nearly 20,000 images of artworks the museum believes to be in the public domain are available to download on this site. Other images may be protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights. By using any of these images you agree to LACMA's Terms of Use.

Box

Turkey, Ottoman, circa 1640
Wood
Tortoiseshell, mother-of-pearl, wood, ivory and bone inlay
8 3/4 x 13 x 8 3/4 in. (22.23 x 33.02 x 22.23 cm)
Purchased with funds provided by the Art Museum Council in honor of the museum's 40th anniversary through the 2005 Collectors Committee (M.2005.125)
Not currently on public view

Curator Notes

By the second half of the sixteenth century Ottoman woodworkers had begun to employ inlays of mother-of-pearl and tortoiseshell, two technically difficult to work materials....
By the second half of the sixteenth century Ottoman woodworkers had begun to employ inlays of mother-of-pearl and tortoiseshell, two technically difficult to work materials. The tortoiseshell was generally laid over metal foil to give it a lustrous quality, and mother-of-pearl plaques were frequently inlaid with black mastic to further emphasize their luminosity. Both techniques were used to enhance this boldly decorated box, which, like other such surviving boxes, was likely intended to store a precious manuscript. The main decoration is of a type associated with Ottoman court art in which three circles (sometimes accompanied by a double wavy line) are arranged to form an endless repeat pattern.
More...

Bibliography

  • Lo Terrenal y lo Divino: Arte Islámico siglos VII al XIX Colección del Museo de Arte del Condado de Los Ángeles. Santiago: Centro Cultural La Moneda, 2015.

  • Komaroff, Linda. Beauty and Identity: Islamic Art from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2016.
  • Lo Terrenal y lo Divino: Arte Islámico siglos VII al XIX Colección del Museo de Arte del Condado de Los Ángeles. Santiago: Centro Cultural La Moneda, 2015.

  • Komaroff, Linda. Beauty and Identity: Islamic Art from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2016.
  • Komaroff, Linda. Collecting Islamic Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art: A Curatorial Perspective. Los Angeles: Art Catalogues; LACMA, 2017.
  • "2005-2006 Selected Acquisitions." LACMA Insider 4, no.1 (2006): 4-7.

More...