dowry box or basket

two-color rattan cane woven in a geometric pattern over a wooden bottom, with brass fittings  

dimensions:

Kandy, Sri Lanka

18th-19th century

acquired in Sri Lanka by Jack Daulton

one side missing the brass hook for the eye latch

Discussion:

Known in Sinhalese as vel-pettiya, these cane boxes, baskets, or caskets were used to store jewelry and other small valuables that were part of the dowry of a high-caste, aristocratic woman in central Sri Lanka (Kingdom of Kandy). 

There is a very similar example in the collection of the National Museum of Kandy, Sri Lanka.

References:

Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, Mediaeval Sinhalese Art (New York: Pantheon Books, 2nd ed. 1956; Broad Campden: Essex House Press, 1st ed. 1908), Plate XLIIIA (a similar example, also with brass fittings).