19C Irish Coromandel Wood Campaign Decanter Box

STUNNING mid-Victorian Decanter box from circa 1860-1880.

Made in Dublin, makers brass label on the interior, for ‘T.K. Austin & Co., Dublin’, the most famous top quality Merchant in Dublin in the mid to late 19th Century.

Made for Military Campaign purposes, it has brass recessed (fold-in) handles and brass banding on all edges.

Made of highly desirable Coromandel Wood from Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).

The lid opens on hinges that fix into position.

It is monogrammed on the top bearing the original owners initials.

The interior is lined with the original purple velvet and inside the top it has 4 brass hooks for attaching liquor glasses. We have found that Waterford Crystal Port Glasses fit perfectly.

The lock and fittings are all of the best quality and marked “R.C & S” in a Crown.

Being sold with contemporary Galway Irish Crystal Decanters, which fit perfectly and do not contain lead, so are safe to use !

As an ADDED BONUS, we are selling this with a number of silver liquor labels.

4 Sterling Silver Liquor Labels – Really nice set of 4 solid silver and hallmarked Liquor (Decanter) Labels. Hallmarked, English, Birmingham, Maker ’CR&S’.

‘Brandy’, ‘Port’ and Gin ‘labels’. Letter ‘g” for 1906.

“Vodka” label. Letter ”f” for 1905.

Also an earlier Silver plate (EPNS) example for the Scottish liqueur, ‘Drambuie’. Probably Scottish, circa 1900.

Also a matching pair of early 20C silver plate labels for ‘Whisky’ and ‘Sherry’.

Highly expensive piece when it was made and only a very wealthy ‘Irish’ Army officer could have afforded this !!

COROMANDEL WOOD: Calamander wood or Coromandel wood is a valuable wood from India, Sri Lanka (Ceylon) and South East Asia. It is of a hazel-brown color, with black stripes (or the other way about), very heavy and hard. It is also known as Macassar Ebony or variegated ebony and is closely related to genuine ebony, but is obtained from different species in the same genus; one of these is Diospyros quaesita Thwaites, from Sri Lanka. The name Calamander comes from the local sinhalese name, ‘kalu-medhiriya’, which means dark chamber; referring to the characteristic ebony black wood. It is used in furniture, Luthiery and for sculpture.

Coromandel wood has been logged to extinction over the last 2 to 3 hundred years and is no longer available for new work in any quantity. Furniture in coromandel is so expensive and so well looked after that even recycling it is an unlikely source. A substitute, Macassar Ebony, has similar characteristics and to the untrained eye is nearly the same but it lacks the depth of colour seen in genuine Coromandel.