Thai Woven Yan Lipao Basketry Hand Bag with Gilded Niello Silver Mounts

This very fine example of a hand bag is made from yan lipao fern vine basketry and has applied gilded niello silver mounts.

It has a prominent carrying handle, and the lid or cover is hinged. The cover is also tiered. The basketry is in a python skin design.

The metal mounts include a lock mount, the handle attachments, the hinge plate on the reverse, and a small plaque in the middle of the lid or cover. They are decorated in typically Thai style including flame-like forms. Dangling from the lock plate is a small pipal-leaf shaped faux lock.

The handle is not metal but also of yan lipao basketry work.

The basket sits on four small gilded ball feet.

The interior is lined with velvet and the interior lid is set with a small mirror.

Basketry items have been made from yan lipao fern vine for hundreds of years in Thailand but into the 20th century, the handicraft was dying out. The then Thai king’s consort Queen Sirikit sought to revive the tradition in 1974, by establishing a yan lipao weaving group. Other groups then spring up. The hand bags were always expensive however, and became a staple among wealthier Thai ladies seeking to emulate the Queen who often would be seen at public events carrying such a bag herself.

See Bunnag, S. (ed.), Treasures of the Chakri Dynasty (undated) for other similar examples.

The basket here is in fine condition.