betel-box
- Museum number
- 1998,0723.7
- Description
-
Miniature betel box ('thanahka bu'), made of coiled, split bamboo decorated with lacquer in the 'yun' technique. Made in imitation of a betel-box, with a deep cover and two internal trays, it may have been used for holding face powder ('thanahka'). The bright cinnabar red and green design is the 'Chinese cloud-collar' pattern, and not only covers the lid and side of the box, but even appears on the bottom of the box and on the bottom of each of the two little trays.
- Production date
- 1875-1925
- Dimensions
-
Diameter: 6 centimetres
-
Height: 5.30 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- Isaacs and Blurton 2000:
This little box has never been used for betel ingredients and was not intended for such use. It may have been used for face powder ('thanahka') or other cosmetics. Or perhaps it was only a toy. Some very similar 'model betel-boxes' even had a tiny copper or brass lime-box to fit into the upper tray - clearly a plaything. Thanahka is a preparation made from the ground bark of a tree. It is worn, usually, on the cheeks in pale yellow circles, to ensure fresh and unwrinkled skin. Most young women wear it (occasionally young men wear it, too), and to have a box to carry the small piece of wood, or the powder produced from it, would be entirely normal. Young Burmese belles are often photographed wearing this distinctively Burmese make-up.
The design is a rare pattern on Pagan 'yun' betel-boxes, but nineteenth-century use for it can be determined from its appearance on the betel-box now in the collections at Kew. Further, the large 'bi it', or ladies toiletries box, in the Department of Ethnography of the British Museum is not a recent acquisition and is surely of late nineteenth-century date.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
2000 Apr - 2000 Aug, BM, 'Visions from the Golden Land: Burma and the Art of Lacquer.'
2000 Dec- 2002 Feb, Exeter, Royal Albert Memorial Museum, 'Visions from the Golden Land: Burma and the Art of Lacquer.'
- Acquisition date
- 1998
- Acquisition notes
- Acquired by the donors in December 1989 from Daw Khin Aye Han at Pagan for 300 kyats.
- Department
- Asia
- Registration number
- 1998,0723.7
- Additional IDs
-
Miscellaneous number: Isaacs 7
