A late 19th century Kashmiri writing set with tray, pen box, inkwells, candlestick and bookends

Papier-mâché, painted and lacquered wood
Kashmir, 1850-1880
Tray: 19.5 × 28.5 cm (7.75 × 11.25 in.) ; pen box: 7.5 × 26.5 × 10.5 cm (3 × 10.5 × 4.25 in.) ; inkwells: h. 5.5 cm (2.25 in.) ; candlestick: h. 15 cm (6 in.) ; bookends: 13.5 × 7 × 9.5 cm (5.25 × 2.75 × 3.75 in.), each

“Most of the crafts such as enameling and papier-mâché were introduced from abroad, but the Kashmiri artists were quick to adapt them to their familiar, native resources and tastes. […] Among the most commonly seen, distinct works of arts and crafts are furnishings of a wide variety, made either in wood or papier-mâché or a combination of both. Painted and varnished, they are decorated mostly in the conventional non-figural mode as already noted […]. While tables, trays, and candlesticks have survived in considerable numbers, less common are chairs.”

Less common also the inkwells and bookends shown here. Together with the tray, the pen box and the more usual double-helix candlestick — one example of which is at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London — they form a proper writing desk set in papier-mâché and lacquered wood, most certainly made in Kashmir in the second half of the nineteenth century for a Western clientele.

Literature: See Pal Pratapaditya, The Arts of Kashmir, New York, 2007.