A Box Lusíada, ivory, carved decoration with traces of gilt "«Hamsa», «Simha» and «vegetal motifs»", relief and engraved silver mirror and lock jamb, engraved silver corners, relief silver lid handle with carved edges "Snake heads ", Singhalese-Portuguese, 16th C. (2nd half), silk lined interior, small faults on the bottom, small defects Rare and significant chest-like casket, rectangular in shape, with a flat lid and projecting base. The box is formed of four dovetailed ivory panels, held in place with metal pins. Two panels make up the lid and two more form the base, assembled with half lap splice joints. All sides except the base are profusely carved in low-relief with scrollwork encircling variations on the bar-headed goose (Hamsa), symbol of perfect union, harmony and life. There are also a lion-headed Hamsa on the right side and a makara-headed Simha on the front. The lid, with its silver handle, is decorated with scrollwork with lotus flowers, Hamsa and Simha on the border, and with two facing Simha in the centre. There are traces of the gold leaf gilding once applied to the polished carved surface. The silver mounts, mainly the finely chased lock, as can be seen in the microphotographs, are a revealing testimony to the high quality of 16th century Ceylonese silverwork. The latch has a rare depiction of a grizzled giant squirrel and of a deadly Indian cobra. The escutcheon, in the form of a coat of arms, is divided into four quarters: a Ceylonese wood pigeon and an Indian hare on the first; a rampant Simha on the second and third; and a changeable hawk-eagle on the last. The present casket belongs to a very small group of similar objects produced in the royal workshops of Ceylon around the middle of the 16th century. Of these, two are now in Munich, having been sent as gifts with the Ceylonese embassy to Lisbon in 1542, and stand out on account of their unparalleled craftsmanship. After the destruction of the capital-city of Kotte in 1565 and the settling on the Portuguese-ruled Colombo, the highly refined carving technique shown in the first caskets, almost in high-relief, was in a way lost. This casket, modelled after a Medieval European prototype, was produced in a period of Ceylon's history marked by wars and internal conflict. The carving is similar in quality to the craftsmanship seen on the sides of the pitched lids and friezes of the mid-16th century caskets now in Vienna, London, Berlin and Boston. More importantly, it is identical to the one in the Távora Sequeira Pinto collection, thought to have been produced in Kandy, in the central highlands of Ceylon, where all the indigenous animals depicted on the lock can still be found. It should be noted that it once formed part of the collection of King Fernando II and has survived by descent in the family of the Countess of Edla until the present day. Bibliografia / Bibliography: Carneiro, José Manuel Martins (ed.), D. Fernando de Saxe Coburgo-Gotha. Comemoração do 1.º Centenário da morte do Rei-Artista (cat. exp.), Sintra, Palácio Nacional da Pena, 1985, p. 209, cat. 238; Pinto, Maria Helena Mendes, et al. (eds.), Via Orientalis (cat. exp.), Bruxelas - Lisboa, Caisse Générale d'Epargne et de Retraite - Europalia Portugal 91 - Fundação Oriente, 1991, pp. 158-159, cat. 128 (descrição errónea); Bibliografia Relacionada / Related Bibliography: Coomaraswamy, Ananda K., Mediaeval Sinhalese Art, Nova Deli, Munsharam Manoharlal, 1956; Ferrão, Bernardo, Mobiliário Português dos Primórdios ao Maneirismo, Vol. 3 (Índia e Japão), Porto, Lello & Irmão Editores, 1990, maxime pp. 77-91; Jaffer, Amin, e Schwabe, Melanie Anne, "A group of sixteenth-century caskets from Ceylon", in Apollo, 149.445, 1999, pp. 3-14; Seipel, Wilfried (ed.), Exotica. Portugals Entdeckungen im Spiegel fürstlicher Kunst- und Wunderkammern der Renaissance (cat. exp.), Viena - Milão, Kunsthistorisches Museum - Skira, 2000, cats. 147, e 149-153; Carvalho, Pedro de Moura (ed.), Luxury for Export. Artistic Exchange between India and Portugal around 1600 (cat. exp.), Boston, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 2008, cat. 1; e Jordan Gschwend, Annemarie, e Beltz, Johannes (eds.), Elfenbeine aus Ceylon: Luxusgüter für Katharina von Habsburg (1507-1578) (cat. exp.), Zurique, Museum Rietberg, 2010, maxime cats. 12, 18-19, 21-23, e 50-52. Dimensões (altura x comprimento x largura) - 9,5 x 19,8 x 14,2 cm