It had been forever since I found a nice old Burmese lacquer betel box, then I found two similar, very good ones in a month, this the second found this week in New Hampshire. I find this cinnabar color to be perhaps the most beautiful color in existence, and while some Burmese "yun" lacquer features elaborate incised figural imagery, I'm partial to the matte surface and overall patterning on one like this. In excellent antique condition, it features both of its two original trays inside.
Cylindrical boxes such as this, called kun-it, were used to store ingredients needed for betel chewing-- once a common practice in southeast Asia, and central to social interaction, making the betel box was an important object, offered to guests in a gesture of hospitality for them to select their preferred ingredients.
6 5/8 t x 7 1/2 diameter and in beautiful condition, with very minimal cracking to the lacquer--mostly just the interior of one of the two trays, minor. Late 19th/early 20th c. I believe.
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