A SINHALESE SILVER-MOUNTED LIDDED RATTAN BASKET WITH ELEPHANT FINIAL
Sri Lanka (Ceylon), 19th century

A finely woven, coiled, and stitched rattan basket of compressed globular shape, with stepped dome-like lid, the body decorated in a zigzag geometric pattern using dyed vegetal fibres in black, the rim and base reinforced with wood, the hinged lid opening to reveal a wooden tripartite interior and decorated with a silver finial modelled as a standing elephant, the front fitted with an engraved silver lock plate in stylised palmette form.

20cm x 16xm x 16cm

This distinctive type of rattan basket, combining indigenous weaving traditions with colonial Ceylonese silverwork, were often used as jewellery or dowry boxes. The elephant—an important symbol in Sri Lankan culture—often connoted strength, royalty, and wisdom, and its presence here may suggest the basket belonging to an important household. These luxury objects were particularly valued in the late Kandyan and early British periods. A related Kandyan basket with silver mounts and elephant finial is in the collection of the National Museum, Colombo, Sri Lanka.