Black Granite Partitioned Dry-Fruit Box with Brass Inlay, 10in

A mewa box for the wedding season

Dry fruit is what actually gets sent, and the mewa box is what it gets sent in. Ahead of an Indian wedding it travels between families — to the pandit, to the in-laws, to the hundred guests who get a box along with the card — and it is nearly always a throwaway: acrylic, foil-lined board, a tin that is used once and forgotten. This is that same box cut in black stone. Ten inches square, four compartments divided by slim stone walls, a hinged lid that lifts clear and stands upright behind it. Filled, it does the job on the day. Emptied, it stays out on a sideboard holding keys, cufflinks or supari. That is the whole argument for making it in stone: the gift outlives the occasion it was given for.

Black granite, and the brass line that edges it

The stone is black granite, quarried in south India and worked in Jaipur. It is a fine-grained igneous stone, dense and completely non-porous, which is why it holds a mirror polish on its outer faces and why it does not take up the oil that comes off cashews and almonds — a wipe with a damp cloth is the whole of the maintenance. Around the rim of the body, and again around the edge of the lid, runs a single brass wire set flush into a channel chiselled to receive it. That is the Rajasthani inlay habit used with restraint: one warm line against a lot of black, cut in rather than laid on top. The brass itself is sourced and fitted; the stone, and the seat the brass sits in, are the work of the sculptors we work with.

What it holds, and what it weighs

The box is ten inches square and four and a half inches tall with the lid down. The four compartments are cut square, roughly four inches across and three deep — the size that takes a proper portion of kaju, badam, pista and kishmish, or two compartments of dry fruit and two of mithai if that is the custom in your family. The lid runs on brass hinges and folds back to stand upright, so nobody has to hold it while the box is being served from. It weighs about nine kilos, which is worth knowing before you order fifty: this is a gift that gets carried in, set down and left there. For a longer guest list the same design comes down to six inches with two compartments.

Making it yours

Most of what changes on a mewa box like this is the lid. A monogram, two initials with a wedding date, or a short line in Devanagari can be cut into the top and filled with the same brass wire that edges it, which is the version wedding planners ask for most often. The compartment count can go to six or nine, the body can be sized up for a mithai-only version, and the same box is made in Makrana white marble if black reads too dark against your invitation set. Each one is packed seated in a fitted presentation box with the lid propped behind it. Send us the guest count, the date on the card and a photograph of your invitation; we will design the lid around it, brief the sculptors, and follow the order through to the door it has to reach.