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Lot Essay
This writing box belongs to a group of exotic ivory-veneered furniture that was executed under the direction of the Dutch and English East India Companies at Vizagapatam, on the Coromandel coast, during the 18th Century (A.K.H. Jaffer, 'The Furniture Trade in Early Colonial India', Oriental Art, vol. XLI, no.1, Spring 1995, pp. 12-13).
The box is typical of Anglo-Indian art of the period executed by local skilled craftsmen. Exotic materials such as padouk, ebony and ivory were used on a wide range of finely crafted items such as cabinets and boxes, the majority of which were created for the European market and often commissioned by the East India Company. In 1686, such was the demand from the west for the exotic products of the East, that the Dutch East India Company set up its own factory in Vizagapatam and trained Indian carpenters there to cope with the increasing demand.
A closely related document box of ebony and rosewood inlaid with ivory is illustrated, Amin Jaffer, Furniture from British India and Ceylon, London, 2001, p. 179, fig. 79, another box of circa 1720 inlaid with a closely related foliate ivory design was sold, Sotheby's London, 26 November 2003, lot 83.
The box is typical of Anglo-Indian art of the period executed by local skilled craftsmen. Exotic materials such as padouk, ebony and ivory were used on a wide range of finely crafted items such as cabinets and boxes, the majority of which were created for the European market and often commissioned by the East India Company. In 1686, such was the demand from the west for the exotic products of the East, that the Dutch East India Company set up its own factory in Vizagapatam and trained Indian carpenters there to cope with the increasing demand.
A closely related document box of ebony and rosewood inlaid with ivory is illustrated, Amin Jaffer, Furniture from British India and Ceylon, London, 2001, p. 179, fig. 79, another box of circa 1720 inlaid with a closely related foliate ivory design was sold, Sotheby's London, 26 November 2003, lot 83.