From jewellery box size to linen trunks, these hand carved wooden boxes with the beautiful inlaid brass are made on the island of Zanzibar, which lies just off Tanzania's coastline You’ll notice that I’m including some posts here and there about local Tanzanian artwork and curios/crafts. This is because I thought that it would be interesting to ‘showcase’ these from time to time. I know that whenever I travel or read up about a new country, some of the first questions I ask are things like “What grows there ?”, “What do they export ?”, “What is the country known for ?”, “What do they make there ?” and “What can I buy there, to bring back home as a memento of my holiday ?” So I guess I’m just recording on my blog some of the lovely items that are created here in Tanzania, that I thought you might find interesting.
The picture above is of a beautiful hand carved wooden box which I bought some years ago when I was on holiday on the island of Zanzibar, which lies just off Tanzania’s coastline. It has an inlaid brass design on it, & this is a typical Zanzibari style. The design of the boxes I am told, are Arab influenced and inspired.
This is a small sized box – which can be used as a jewellery box. (Or a place to keep all your secrets !) It sits on top of my fireplace and I use it for storing matches inside. (Okay I’ll admit it, sometimes the odd ‘escaped’ curtain runner or broken button will end up in there too !)
These boxes however, are made in every size – right up to large trunk size, for storing things like linen and spare crockery in. Some of the trunks have softly rounded brass ‘spikes’ on the lids too, and are quite beautiful and very East African.
The picture above is of a beautiful hand carved wooden box which I bought some years ago when I was on holiday on the island of Zanzibar, which lies just off Tanzania’s coastline. It has an inlaid brass design on it, & this is a typical Zanzibari style. The design of the boxes I am told, are Arab influenced and inspired.
This is a small sized box – which can be used as a jewellery box. (Or a place to keep all your secrets !) It sits on top of my fireplace and I use it for storing matches inside. (Okay I’ll admit it, sometimes the odd ‘escaped’ curtain runner or broken button will end up in there too !)
These boxes however, are made in every size – right up to large trunk size, for storing things like linen and spare crockery in. Some of the trunks have softly rounded brass ‘spikes’ on the lids too, and are quite beautiful and very East African.
They're so pretty, and quite unique - don't you think ?
(If you’d like to read a recent post I wrote about Zanzibar spices, you can see that here.)
