'Harsha' Decorative Tissue Box in Printed Wood

Provenance

The Harsha tissue box cover belongs to the North Indian tradition of decorative woodware: wooden forms — boxes, trays, stands — whose surfaces are treated with colour and pattern to transform a functional object into a decorative one. The technique is screen or digitally-applied printing on a prepared wood surface, sealed under resin to produce a waterproof, durable finish. This approach draws on the older lineage of painted and lacquered woodwork from workshops across Rajasthan and western Uttar Pradesh, where lac-coated household objects have been made for domestic and ceremonial use for centuries.

The print on Harsha carries a bold traditional vocabulary — dense surface ornament in a confident multicolour palette. The compositional logic belongs to the North Indian decorative tradition: field and border working together, the surface treated as an opportunity for pattern. The same formal principles that govern a painted border in a Mughal manuscript or the repeat in a block-printed textile organise the surface of this box — compressed here to a daily domestic object.

The piece is finished waterproof — the sealed surface suited to desk, vanity, or dining table. The top panel accepts a standard tissue insert. Each box is individually handcrafted; print placement and colour tone may vary slightly between pieces as a natural feature of the process.

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.