A DUTCH COLONIAL SILVER-MOUNTED TORTOISESHELL BETEL BOX, PROBABLY BATAVIA, SECOND HALF 18TH CENTURY the mounts probably of contemporary Dutch manufacture pierced with scroll foliage and figures, lock missing 15cm wide The habit of betel chewing, common to much of East Asia, was apparently as popular as smoking in the Dutch East Indies, becoming widespread among the Dutch trading community, as well as with the indigenous population. 'A betel chaw consists of a piece of the pinang [or betel] nut, a piece of gambir, and a little chalk made from sea shells, all wrapped in the fragrant but bitter leaves of the betel or sirih plant... The sap from the sirih leaves stains the teeth and mouth a bright orange red. (E.M. Beekman Editor, Fugitive Dreams: an anthology of Dutch Colonial Literature, The University of Massachusetts Press, 1988, p.127). For examples of other such lockable silver-mounted tortoiseshell boxes see lot 261 Christie's Amsterdam 24th June 2008, lot 150 Christie's Amsterdam 14th June 2007 and lots 100-102/4 Sotheby's Amsterdam 11th December 2006.