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拍品專文
This richly carved ebony table is likely to have been made in Madras, southern India, circa 1850-60. It relates to one now in the Victoria & Albert Museum with legs composed of lion monopodia, each corner of the plinth resting on a lion couchant and a deep florally-carved frieze. Its design may be derived from W. Blackie's Cabinet-Maker's Assistant, 1853 or William Smee & Sons, Designs for Furniture, 1850-55 (see E. T. Joy, Pictorial Dictionary of British 19th Century Furniture Design, 1977, p. 485). The thistle carved frieze may be associated with a number of Scottish cabinet-makers resident in Calcutta from the second half of the 19th Century, such as Steuart & Co. and Hamilton & Co. (A. Jaffer, Furniture from British India & Ceylon, London, 2001, pp. 145 & 282).
The inclusion of the carved thistles and Canova lions to this table is also indicative of the presence of European and even Scottish patrons in Madras from the mid-19th Century onwards. Architectural motifs on Indian furniture from this period became more common as a result of ex-patriot commissions.
The inclusion of the carved thistles and Canova lions to this table is also indicative of the presence of European and even Scottish patrons in Madras from the mid-19th Century onwards. Architectural motifs on Indian furniture from this period became more common as a result of ex-patriot commissions.