'Surabhi' Tea Box in Printed Wood

Provenance

The Surabhi 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 floral ornamental pattern and sealed under resin. The tradition comes from workshops in Delhi NCR and western Uttar Pradesh, where the vocabulary of India's painted woodwork is adapted to contemporary domestic storage forms including tea bag boxes, tissue covers, and coasters.

The surface print on Surabhi draws from the floral vocabulary of the night-jasmine — Nyctanthes arbor-tristis, the flower that opens only at dusk and falls before dawn. The night-jasmine (paarijaat or harshingar) has been present in Indian botanical illustration since the Mughal period, catalogued in the margins of court manuscripts and depicted in temple courtyard plantings across the subcontinent. It is the flower of the evening hour — the same hour as the cup of tea, the time when the day's work ends and something warm and considered begins. Surabhi in Sanskrit names the quality of sweet fragrance — the cow of plenty in Vedic mythology whose milk flows without limit, and by extension anything that is fragrant and giving.

The waterproof surface makes this decorative wooden tea box suited to everyday counter and shelf 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.