Brass Dhokra Work Money Box From Orissa - 19thC Small Mirrors and Gujarat for storing jewellery

and Gujarat for storing jewellery

Traditionally the bride's family had to offer gifts known as dowry - to the bridegroom's family if they were to find a good husband for their daughter

while the interior bears deep staining from its original contents — bindi powder once used by Indian women for adornment

The colour is achieved by adding a coloured lacquer onto the tanned leather

' The object to be cast is sculpted from beeswax mixed with a little oil

Brass Dhokra Work Money Box From Orissa - 19thC Small Mirrors and Gujarat for storing jewelleryThis old brass money box is from the Dhokra Damar tribes of Orissa in North East India. This style of Dhokra work dates to the late 19th & early 20th centuries. These caskets would have been used daily by families for keeping cash and valuables. The Dhokra tribe extends from Bihar to West Bengal and Orissa; members are distant cousins of the Madhya Pradesh Dhokras. A few hundred years ago the Dhokras of Central and Eastern India traveled south as far