Material Teak, mother-of-pearl, nielloed silver, tortoiseshell, and brass
Dimensions 90.5 x 55 cm
Place of Creation Gujarat, India
Status Vetted

About the Work

A highly important and rare Gujarati mother-of-pearl tabletop, rectangular in shape and made from teak panels (Tectona grandis), covered on the top with tesserae made from the highest-quality green turban shell (Turbo marmoratus) pinned with brass pins, while the underside shows traces of red and black shellac painting.The mother-of-pearl design includes a large central medallion with an inner circle of radial polylobed tesserae following an Islamic-type design with small nielloed silver tesserae and tortoiseshell dots on the border, with the outer circle forming a stylised lotus flower; on a ground of fish-scale pattern four smaller medallions are set on the corners, also with radial polylobed tesserae and a similar Islamic-type tortoiseshell border; the four corners further decorated with quarter circles.While many late sixteenth-century objects made in Gujarat featuring mother-of-pearl are known only a few include tortoiseshell (probably from the green sea turtle or Chelonia mydas). One of the most unusual aspects of the decoration of our tabletop is, nonetheless, the use of nielloed silver plaquettes which are Islamic in shape and decoration. Niello (from the Latin nigellum,“somewhat black”) is a black mixture, usually of sulphur, copper, silver, and lead, used as an inlay on engraved silver which is added as a powder or paste, then fired until it melts. It hardens and blackens when cool and is polished to highlight the contrast with the silver around it. While sixteenth-century north Indian silver objects decorated with niello are virtually non-existent, examples of this highly refined technique have been documented in Iranian metalwork since early times, and from which the present nielloed plaquettes, with their vegetal design, seem to originate.


Modelled after European prototypes, such as the Portuguese mesa d’engonços, usually made from two hinged boards placed over a trestle, the present tabletop would have been similarly mounted on simple supports. Being highly versatile, tables such as this would be set at the Lisbon court either on taller supports if used alongside chairs and stools or, more probably, set on lower supports to set upon a dais (covered with Persian and India silk carpets) and used with large cushions. In fact, it was customary for Portuguese female members of the court to sit on costly cushions (almofadas), a custom adopted following the Islamic occupation. A mother-of-pearl tabletop such as the present one would in fact be reserved for a royal female member of the Lisbon court, used for small meals while attended by female courtiers, its proportions being identical to Chinese lacquered tabletops acquired by Catarina of Austria (1507-1578) in 1562.


Only three other examples are known to us. One, from Hatfield House, a Jacobean country house on the eastern side of the town of Hatfield, Hertfordshire and home of the Marquesses of Salisbury, is recorded in 1629 and 1638 inventories, described as “richlie inlaid with pearls”; a second one (160 x 104 cm) was sold (lot 170) at Sotheby’s London, 27 May 1988; and a third belongs to a private collection.

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Provenance

English art market

Literature

CRESPO, Hugo Miguel, À Mesa do Príncipe. Jantar e Cear na Corte de Lisboa (1500-1700): prata, madrepérola, cristal de rocha e porcelana, Lisboa, AR-PAB, 2018, pp. 240-245 (cat. 32)

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