Hand-Painted Wooden Pen Box - 9-Inch Rajasthani Hunt Scene

What is painted on it

The maroon box carries a lion hunt; the green one a tiger. Both are painted in the miniature idiom - figures on horseback, the animal at bay, foliage filling the ground - compressed into a strip nine inches long and under two wide. That compression is the interesting part: the scene has to read at a glance from a desk, so the painter simplifies without losing the story.

Why this one

230 g of solid mango wood. Most desk pen boxes are moulded plastic or a resin cast pretending to be wood; this is turned and painted by hand, and the brush marks are visible if you tilt it to the light. Mango wood is the standard timber for painted Rajasthani woodwork: dense enough to carve and hold a hinge, and cut from trees at the end of their fruiting life rather than felled for timber, which is why it is the sustainable choice in Indian craft.

Which colour

• Brown - a deep maroon ground with a lion hunt on the lid
• Green - a deep green ground with a tiger hunt on the lid

Both have the same gold and floral side borders. The maroon reads warmer on a wooden desk; the green is the higher-contrast of the two.

Where it works

On a desk, in a drawer, on a study shelf, or in a bag. It is the size of a pencil case and does the same job, but it is the object on the desk people pick up and ask about.

Gifting

Teacher appreciation, a graduation, a birthday for someone who writes with a fountain pen, or a return gift at a function where the guests are adults rather than children. It also works as a corporate desk gift - it is the right price point and it is not branded.

Care

Wipe with a soft dry cloth. Keep water and cleaning sprays off the painted surface, and do not soak it. Painted mango wood does not like standing damp or direct all-day sun.