Rare & Massive Six-Kilogram Shan-Burmese Silver Textile Storage Chest

This massive chest, of solid silver, is likely to have been a wedding gift or similar from one princely Shan family to another, and is believed to have been intended to serve as a storage box for fine textiles. It is remarkable for its size and weight – weighing more than six kilograms. It is the largest box in silver from Burma that we have seen.

It has eight sides (on account of its flattened corners) and a domed, hinged cover.

The cover is finely repoussed with thickets of bamboo amid which small animals hide, all within a broad border of bamboo and leaf motifs.

All sides are similarly decorated.

The based is elaborately engraved with a pair of peacocks amid copious foliage. The peacock in Burma became associated with royalty after it was adopted by the Konbaung Dynasty in Mandalay as an emblem.

The Shan States were a collection of up to sixteen Shan (Tai) fiefdoms in eastern Burma, called mueang, whose hereditary rulers bore the title saopha (sawbwa). Burma was administered from India during the British colonial period, but the Shan States were not – they were administered by a British appointed governor.

Pang Long in the Shan States was a major centre for silverwork. The silver was obtained by melting old silver rupee coins and  bars of silver. It was also mined in the Shan States in Nam Tu-Pang in the north and Baw Saing in the south.

The chest is in excellent condition. It is rare, sculptural and quite a talking point.