Coco de Mer, aka Sea Coconut - crafted as Basket or Carrier - Lodoicea maldivica - 20×33×35 cm

Container made from a large Sea Coconut. The Sea Coconut is the largest seed in the world, it comes from a plant that lives only in two islands of the Seychelles archipelago: Curieuse and Praslin. For its rarity and curious erotic form it has been a collection object for several centuries, natural or worked as a box, basket, used as begging or ritual bowl especially in the Indian subcontinent. This jagged-edge basket comes from Goa, former Portuguese colony in India, where in the late 19th and early 20th centuries the ‘coco de mer’ were expensive collectibles, imported from the Seycelles and Africa and often processed as baskets or boxes. Good condition, object of about 100 years, natural patina, two small flaws in the jagged edge as highlighted in some photographs.