The demand for European style goods from India by East India Company traders began in the earlier part of the 18th Century. In the beginning, European cabinetmakers satisfied a good part of this demand. By 1795, there were as many as twenty-five European furniture makers working in Calcutta and ten in Madras hoping to amass a fortune in the trade. Indian artisans were employed and began to apply local techniques to Western forms. This table has characteristics associated with furniture produced from Bombay. 'Blackwood' furniture from Bombay was exported to Madras and Calcutta as early as the 1750's, and the geometric patterns in ivory called 'sadeli' work was also predominant in this center (A.K.H. Jaffer, 'The Furniture Trade in Early Colonial India', Oriental Art, vol. XVI, no. 1, Spring 1995, pp. 10-18).

This table is virtually identical in design to one sold by the late Colin Broun Lindsay, Colstoun, East Lothian, Scotland, Sotheby's London, 21-22 May 1990, lot 91 (and illustrated on the cover). Both tables feature canted rectangular tops with swagged frieze, foliate and cup stem and cabriole legs in ebony with stylized foliate inlay. Notably, the Costoun legs support caparisoned elephant heads rather than the beasts on the present lot.