Cabinet
Category
Furniture
Date
circa 1680
Materials
Rosewood, inlaid and veneered with ivory and with geometrical patterns of ivory, ebony, sandalwood and exotic woods in sadeli technique, brass mounts
Place of origin
Gujarat (India)
Order this imageCollection
Charlecote Park, Warwickshire
NT 532996
Summary
A pair of West Indian cabinets, Sindh or Gujarat, circa 1680, in rosewood inlaid and veneered with sadeli technique of ivory, ebony and exotic woods, each opening with thirteen drawers, simulating sixteen and all decorated with geometrical sadeli, similarly inlaid to the top and sides. These cabinets are raised on later bases made with Vizagapatam ivory inlay to match the suite of chairs (NT 532995.1-10). This pair of cabinets, together with the suite of chairs (NT 532995.1-10) was purchased in 1837 by George Hammond Lucy from the Regent Street dealer Samuel Isaacs, with the help of the picture dealer William Buchanan. According to Buchanan's letter on 27 February 1837 " The set of 8 chairs armchair couch bed and pair of cabinets were made a present of by Queen Elizabeth to the Earl of Leicester, and were formerly at Kenilworth...price demanded for the whole set 800£ but he told me he would taken 500 gs". Thought to be Elizabethan, the suite was quickly purchased for "488.5.6". Francisco Pelsaert noted in 1626 that in Tatta, Sindh, 'Ornamental desks, draught-boards, writing cases, and similar goods are manufactured locally in large quantities (...) inlaid with ivory and ebony, and used to be exported in large quantities to Goa and the coast towns.' Writing at the close of the seventeenth century, Captain Cope confirmed that at Tatta, 'They make fine Cabinets, both lack'd and inlaid with ivory.' By contrast, the early seventeenth-century English traveller William Finch cited the nearby region of Gujarat as a leading centre of fine inlaid furniture.
Provenance
Purchased in 1837 by George Hammond Lucy (1789-1845) for the Library at Charlecote. Presented to the National Trust by Sir Montgomerie Fairfax-Lucy (1896 – 1965), two years after the death of his father, Sir Henry Ramsay-Fairfax, 3rd Bt (1870 – 1944), with Charlecote Park and its chief contents, in 1946.
References
Jaffer 2002 : "Luxury goods from India, the art of the Indian cabinet maker", London, V&A publications, 2002.