Seychelles Nut Vessel in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, February 2020

Seychelles nut vessel
last quarter of the 16th century


Object Details

Title: Seychelles nut vessel

Date: last quarter of the 16th century

Culture: Portuguese

Medium: Silver (gilded), Seychelles nut (Lodoicea maldivica), horn of a southern serow (Capricornis sumatrensis)

Dimensions: 14 5/8 × 8 3/4 × 13 3/8 in. (37.1 × 22.2 × 34 cm)

Classifications: Metalwork-Silver-Miniature, Natural Substances

Credit Line: Schatzkammer des Deutschen Ordens, Vienna


Westerners who found Seychelles nuts as flotsam on Maldives beaches believed them to have come from the depths of the sea (never having seen the rare trees that produce them). Early modern medical texts attributed powerful healing properties to the nuts, which drove demand and expense to great heights. The skilled goldsmith who fashioned this vessel used half of an enormous Seychelles nut—in its entirety, this would be the largest surviving historical example of the specimen. Its size would have added to an already high value.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/759718