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Lot Essay
VIZAGAPATAM AS THE SOURCE
This bureau-cabinet is one among a group of related examples originating from the East Indian port of Vizagapatam in the first half of the 18th century.
They are all characterised by their ivory decoration of dense trailing flowers, large densely foliated trees issuing from urns and fantastic animals and birds inlaid on teak, padouk, rosewood or ebony which were all readily available in the port. Vizagapatam already had a flourishing textile trade, a centre for the production of the colourful cloth known as chintz which was in high demand in the west and ensured that the port was regularly visited by East India Company ships. Indeed it was was the very reason for much European settlement in the region, with an English textile factory established in the port in 1668 while the Dutch trading post at Bimlipatam had been founded as early as 1628. The cabinet trade in Vizagapatam had developed at the end of the 17th century when local craft skills using ivory were married to western furniture forms and the decoration was derived directly from that seen on textiles and in particular on palampores or bed covers. While the treatment of the marquetry is unmistakably Indian a limited range of Western elements were also introduced under the influence of the English, Dutch and Portuguese, for example the classical urns from which trees issue, and the occasional depiction of amorini, motifs which have no precedents in Indian art. The quality of the work was noted by Major John Corneille, visiting in 1756, who wrote that the chintz 'is esteemed the best in India for the brightness of its colours' and 'the place is likewise remarkable for its inlay work, and justly, for they do it to the greatest perfection' (Major J. Corneille, Journal of my Service in India, ed. Michael Edwardes, London, 1966, pp.100-101.
Inventories for British settlers from the second half of the eighteenth century regularly list ivory and ivory-inlaid articles, often small items such as table bureaux and dressing-cases. However more substantial pieces, bureau-cabinets, dressing or writing- tables and less-commonly sets of chairs, were also acquired much earlier than this by Government officials including Edward Harrison, Governor of Fort St. George from 1711-17 and Richard Benyon, also Governor of Fort St. George, 1734-44, their high status reflecting the value placed on the artefacts.
THE DATING, EVOLUTION OF THE PATTERN, AND RELATED BUREAU-CABINETS
Amin Jaffer identifies the earliest bureau-cabinet from Vizagapatam as that owned by Sir Matthew Decker, Director of the East India Company from 1713-43. Of double-domed form and with mirrors in the doors, it differs from the present example in having largely plain surfaces of lustrous padouk wood, but with broad ebony and ivory-inlaid borders. Jaffer gives this a date of 1720-30. Several other early examples including one belonging to Richard Benyon, likewise feature contrasting light and dark woods and broad borders, and often a rather awkward arrangement of drawers in the bureau. These however are not furnished with mirrors in the doors, instead featuring the conventional flowering tree pattern (Amin Jaffer, Furniture from British India and Ceylon, London, 2001, no.35, pp.182-185).
Jaffer includes the present cabinet in a slightly later group, perhaps around 1740-50. These are characterised by the use almost entirely of a single wood, in this case teak, the borders reduced to narrow bands of engraved ivory, and the surfaces filled with typical decoration (ibid, pp.184). However, the discovery of this 'curious India Book Case inlaid with Ivory' in the 1732 inventory for Balls Park would seem to confirm a date significantly earlier than hitherto suggested.
Related examples within this group include: one formerly in the collection of Mrs. Chauncey McCormack, Chicago, by whom it was donated to The North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, N.C (accession number G.56.5.1 a/b) and subsequently sold Sotheby's, New York, October 16, 1993, lot 348 ($145,500 including premium). It was exhibited by Mallett & Son, London, in 1994 (see Mallett English and Continental Furniture and Objets d'Art, 1994, p.16 and Lanto Synge, Mallett Millenium, 1999, p.288, fig. 372). It was subsequently sold again Sotheby's, New York, Property from the Collections of Lily and Edmond J. Safra, 3 Nov 2005, lot 140, ($1,472,000 including premium).
Another example was formerly in the collection of D.J.Orde Esq, sold Christie's, London, 25 Nov 1976, lot 120 (£39,600 including premium). Like the present lot this featured an interior part-lined in tortoiseshell. It was subsequently sold Sotheby's, London, Property from a Private European Collection, 6 June 2006, lot 330, (£747,200 including premium).
Another example featuring tortoiseshell-lined interiors was sold anonymously Christie's, London, 18 Nov 1993, lot 195 (£100,500 including premium) and again exhibited by Mallett & Son, London, in 1994 (ibid. pp.18-19).
This bureau-cabinet is one among a group of related examples originating from the East Indian port of Vizagapatam in the first half of the 18th century.
They are all characterised by their ivory decoration of dense trailing flowers, large densely foliated trees issuing from urns and fantastic animals and birds inlaid on teak, padouk, rosewood or ebony which were all readily available in the port. Vizagapatam already had a flourishing textile trade, a centre for the production of the colourful cloth known as chintz which was in high demand in the west and ensured that the port was regularly visited by East India Company ships. Indeed it was was the very reason for much European settlement in the region, with an English textile factory established in the port in 1668 while the Dutch trading post at Bimlipatam had been founded as early as 1628. The cabinet trade in Vizagapatam had developed at the end of the 17th century when local craft skills using ivory were married to western furniture forms and the decoration was derived directly from that seen on textiles and in particular on palampores or bed covers. While the treatment of the marquetry is unmistakably Indian a limited range of Western elements were also introduced under the influence of the English, Dutch and Portuguese, for example the classical urns from which trees issue, and the occasional depiction of amorini, motifs which have no precedents in Indian art. The quality of the work was noted by Major John Corneille, visiting in 1756, who wrote that the chintz 'is esteemed the best in India for the brightness of its colours' and 'the place is likewise remarkable for its inlay work, and justly, for they do it to the greatest perfection' (Major J. Corneille, Journal of my Service in India, ed. Michael Edwardes, London, 1966, pp.100-101.
Inventories for British settlers from the second half of the eighteenth century regularly list ivory and ivory-inlaid articles, often small items such as table bureaux and dressing-cases. However more substantial pieces, bureau-cabinets, dressing or writing- tables and less-commonly sets of chairs, were also acquired much earlier than this by Government officials including Edward Harrison, Governor of Fort St. George from 1711-17 and Richard Benyon, also Governor of Fort St. George, 1734-44, their high status reflecting the value placed on the artefacts.
THE DATING, EVOLUTION OF THE PATTERN, AND RELATED BUREAU-CABINETS
Amin Jaffer identifies the earliest bureau-cabinet from Vizagapatam as that owned by Sir Matthew Decker, Director of the East India Company from 1713-43. Of double-domed form and with mirrors in the doors, it differs from the present example in having largely plain surfaces of lustrous padouk wood, but with broad ebony and ivory-inlaid borders. Jaffer gives this a date of 1720-30. Several other early examples including one belonging to Richard Benyon, likewise feature contrasting light and dark woods and broad borders, and often a rather awkward arrangement of drawers in the bureau. These however are not furnished with mirrors in the doors, instead featuring the conventional flowering tree pattern (Amin Jaffer, Furniture from British India and Ceylon, London, 2001, no.35, pp.182-185).
Jaffer includes the present cabinet in a slightly later group, perhaps around 1740-50. These are characterised by the use almost entirely of a single wood, in this case teak, the borders reduced to narrow bands of engraved ivory, and the surfaces filled with typical decoration (ibid, pp.184). However, the discovery of this 'curious India Book Case inlaid with Ivory' in the 1732 inventory for Balls Park would seem to confirm a date significantly earlier than hitherto suggested.
Related examples within this group include: one formerly in the collection of Mrs. Chauncey McCormack, Chicago, by whom it was donated to The North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, N.C (accession number G.56.5.1 a/b) and subsequently sold Sotheby's, New York, October 16, 1993, lot 348 ($145,500 including premium). It was exhibited by Mallett & Son, London, in 1994 (see Mallett English and Continental Furniture and Objets d'Art, 1994, p.16 and Lanto Synge, Mallett Millenium, 1999, p.288, fig. 372). It was subsequently sold again Sotheby's, New York, Property from the Collections of Lily and Edmond J. Safra, 3 Nov 2005, lot 140, ($1,472,000 including premium).
Another example was formerly in the collection of D.J.Orde Esq, sold Christie's, London, 25 Nov 1976, lot 120 (£39,600 including premium). Like the present lot this featured an interior part-lined in tortoiseshell. It was subsequently sold Sotheby's, London, Property from a Private European Collection, 6 June 2006, lot 330, (£747,200 including premium).
Another example featuring tortoiseshell-lined interiors was sold anonymously Christie's, London, 18 Nov 1993, lot 195 (£100,500 including premium) and again exhibited by Mallett & Son, London, in 1994 (ibid. pp.18-19).