Enquiry about object: 7556
Acehnese Silver & Gold Betel or Tobacco Box
Aceh, North Sumatra, Indonesia 18th-19th century
height: 3.5cm, length: 9.4cm, depth: 5.4cm, weight: 128g
Provenance
private collection, London, UK, since 1990
This rectangular box is from Aceh (pronounced ‘ar-chay’), an Islamic sultanate in the northern tip of Sumatra. It is of silver, with a hinged, domed lid. The lid has attached gold-alloy plates, and with suasa (an alloy of gold and copper preferred because of its reddish tone) on the rounded corners.
The gold-alloy plates are chased with floral motifs, and have been fixed through the silver via split pins, which are visible on the inside of the box.
The exposed silver parts of the box have been engraved and chased with more floral and geometric motifs.
Such boxes were used principally to hold tobacco and betel. Their form is based on the copper and brass tobacco boxes that the Dutch colonialists introduced to Sumatra from Europe.
Made in Aceh, such boxes show significant Malay influence, and so sometimes are erroneously catalogued as Malay.
Similar examples are illustrated in Backman (2024, p. 49) and Jasper & Pirngadie (1930, p. 243).
References
Backman, M., Malay Silver and Gold: Courtly Splendour from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and Thailand, River Books, 2024.
Jasper, J.E. & Pirngadie, De Inlandsche Kunstnijverheid in Nederlandsch Indie IV: de Goud en Zilversmeedkunst, 1930.
