Material Teak, East Indian rosewood, ivory, green-dyed ivory, and iron fittings
Dimensions 29 x 46.5 x 34 cm
Place of Creation India, Gujarat, or Sindh (in present-day Pakistan)
Status Vetted

About the Work

This fall front writing box is made from teak, veneered in east Indian rosewood (Dalbergia latifolia) and decorated with wood and ivory inlays (in its natural colour and dyed in green). The exterior sides (and the interior side of the fall front) are colourfully decorated with a wide border of ivory inlays with undulating floral scrolls near the edges. On the front we find two male figures riding horses, probably Portuguese, and again on the interior of the fall front, two Portuguese figures appear seated on chairs modelled after a European prototype, depicted also with their typical hats and wide breeches (called bombachas).


On the top are four male figures in Islamic attire riding two elephants interspersed with flowering trees, flanked by two figures holding falcons and two more sets of Islamic figures, two male and two female. In the center two more Portuguese figures seated around a flowering tree. The interior is fitted with eight drawers (one of them simulating two) set in four tiers with a large square drawer at the centre. While the inlay decoration on the front of the smaller drawers consists of flowering plants with symmetrically placed quails, the front of the larger central drawer consists of two figures in Islamic attire. The present writing box is modelled after a European prototype known in German as schreibtisch or “writing desk”, where the most coveted and expensive ones were produced. The hinged front drops down to form a surface for writing. Prevalent in the interior furnishings of European noble and patrician households, portable fall front boxes of this type were a basic requirement of European officials, merchants and traders living and travelling in Asia.

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Provenance

Portuguese private collection

Literature

JAFFER, Amin, Luxury Goods from India. The Art of the Cabinet-Maker, London, V&A Publications, 2002, pp. 28-29
CRESPO, Hugo Miguel (ed.), A Arte de Coleccionar. Lisboa, a Europa e o Mundo na Época Moderna (1500-1800). The Art of Collecting. Lisbon, Europe and the Early Modern World (1500-1800) (cat.), Lisboa, ARPAB, 2019
CRESPO, Hugo Miguel, Shopping for Global Goods. Consumption and Trade in the Renaissance Lisbon, Lisboa, AR-PAB, 2020

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