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Indo-Portuguese Tortoiseshell, Mother of Pearl and Ivory Inlaid Table Cabinet.
India, 17th-18th Century.
33.6 x 52 x 36 cm.
Inlaid with panels of tortoiseshell and plaques of mother-of-pearl with bold cartouches surrounded by polygons and divided by narrow micro-mosaic bone and ivory borders, drop front revealing twelve drawers of various sizes with silver palmette handles, functioning key for lock.
Portable fall-front cabinets such as this were favoured by European merchants and traders living and travelling in Asia. Many were made in Gujarat and Sind in the 16th and early 17th century as attested by travellers including William Finch who cited Gujarat as a leading centre of fine inlay work. Please see William Finch, Early Travels in India 1583-1619, ed. William Foster, London, 1921, p. 173. These cabinets were often profusely inlaid with luxury materials such as ivory, ebony and rare woods. Furniture from this part of the world was widely traded, often being used in wealthy German and English households of the 17th century. Please see Amin Jaffar’s Luxury Goods From India: The Art of the Indian Cabinet-Maker, V&A, 2002, pp. 18 and 28. Our cabinet which is very high quality is unusual for its extensive use of tortoiseshell.
Related seventeenth-century Indo-Portuguese cabinets are in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston. Please see https:// www.gardnermuseum.org/experience/ collection/14843A. Please see: Pedro Moura Carvalho, Luxury for Export: Artistic Exchange Between India and Portugal Around 1600, Periscope Publishing, 2008 A seventeenth-century cabinet with large panels of tortoiseshell is in the Museu Municipal de Viana do Castelo, Porto, Portugal.
The BADA Standard
- Since 1918, BADA has been the leading association for the antiques and fine art trade
- Members are elected for their knowledge, integrity and quality of stock
- Our clients are protected by BADA’s code of conduct
- Our dealers’ membership is reviewed and renewed annually
- Bada.org is a non-profit site: clients deal directly with members and they pay no hidden fees
