'Gandha' Tea Box in Printed Wood

Provenance

The Gandha tea box belongs to the North Indian tradition of decorative woodware — wooden forms treated with surface print and sealed under a waterproof lacquer. Each box is individually cut and worked in wood, its surface printed with a night-jasmine ornamental pattern and sealed under resin. The tradition comes from workshops in Delhi NCR and western Uttar Pradesh, adapting the vocabulary of India's painted woodwork to contemporary domestic storage forms.

The narrow format of the Gandha box — a single-row tea bag organiser — places its surface print in close proximity to the user: the lid opens at hand height, the ornament is seen and touched daily. The night-jasmine motif on the surface carries the same botanical and cultural weight as the larger Surabhi box — the evening flower, the fragrance of the threshold hour — compressed to a smaller, more intimate daily surface. Gandha in Sanskrit names fragrance itself — the quality of scent as a present, palpable thing — appropriate for a box whose daily use is associated with the fragrant ritual of tea.

The waterproof surface makes this handmade tea box suited to everyday counter use. Each piece is individually handcrafted; print placement and colour tone may vary slightly between pieces.

Disclaimer

• These pieces are handcrafted in wood with a printed surface. Variations in tone and colour are a natural feature of the process.
• Minor differences in print registration or surface texture should be understood as the signature of individual craft, not a defect.