Featured Nagina carving, a lost art

I have collected antique Asian pieces for a while now and marvel at the skill, patience, fastidiousness that it took to make them.
After the 1857 uprising against the British the manufacture of arms was prohibited in India, the craftsmen of Nagina turned their fantastic skill from metal carving on guns to wood carving. Ebony was the wood of choice as it was local to Nagina being sourced in the Shivalik range.
Although Ebony is hard to carve and splits easily the craftsmen of Nagina excelled in producing carving that confounded contemporary critics back in Europe, especially given that these items were being made on the street with very little in the way of equipment, it was clearly superior to what Europeans could produce.
I look at the items that I have managed to acquire with a real joy, unfortunately the art was lost around 1900's, some carving still takes place there now but the quality is nowhere near what it was back in the 1860's-1890's
Anyway I have taken some photos of the items I have just to show 1/2 mm detail that cover each piece.

 

Absolutely gorgeous raver. I would certainly not object to having them in my living room.
I must take some pictures of my antique Japara boxes, this style reminds me so much of Japara carving.

 

I would like to see them if they are anyway like the above. What date are your Japara boxes?

 

A big one, what we call a correspondence box, came to The Netherlands in 1912, and a small one probably from the 1930s.

 

Take some pictures, I might start collecting them, Nagina has become very expensive

 

Thank you for sharing,those are truly lovely.

 

They are lovely, not to mention that wonderful wall too!

 

And the man in the mirror of course, which makes it a very nice photograph all together. Didn't want to mention that before, but since you started....

 

I wondered how long it would be before the wall was mentioned lol

 

I kept my mouth firmly shut this time, but as we say in The Netherlands 'if God could hear me thinking'...

 

You do realize we'll be expecting that wall every time you post a thread.

 

I wouldn't have it any other way

 

I was just going to ask how people took photos of reflective surfaces without getting themselves into the picture and I see I'm not the only one with that issue!

These are gorgeous and the wall is as well.

 

A little late to the party but I am a new member .

These are fantastic examples of Nagina craftsmanship. I collect Asian carved wood but have just started collecting Nagina carvings; nothing quite on this scale but still quite nice. I’ve just bought an Inkstand and what looks like a spice box. The spice box is in generally good condition but has a small chunk out of it but then again I didn’t pay too much for it.

 

Hi Rabid!

Welcome to Antiquers...........

Best of luck in adding to your collection.

 

Thanks for the warm welcome Judy!

 

You're welcome.

Others will be along to welcome you also.

I'll tag at least 2 that I know will be interested in viewing your photos and getting to meet you.

@Any Jewelry

@808 raver

 

Welcome @Rabid Collector .
Those are gorgeous.

Great! I would love to see more.

I agree, the box could be a spice box. If you are good at restoring, you could fix that nibble on the lid, although it is not a real problem, no major damage.
You can probably find square glass ink bottles to fill the squares on the inkstand, and it will look even better.

 

Thanks Judy

 

Sadly I’m very good at buying, not so good at restoring. Any tips greatly received. Great tip about the ink bottles. A couple of nice silver topped ones would work well I think.