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Lot Essay
This rare form of toilet mirror relates to various examples of table bureaux from Vizagapatam, a port on the northern stretches of the Coromandel Coast, the bases of which usually have sloping falls and serpentine or arcaded frieze drawers. The intertwined feathery leaf and floral branch design relates to early 18th-century chintzes made in India on the Coromandel Coast for the Dutch market and is predominantly found on furniture inlaid with ivory rather than veneered with it (see A. Jaffer, Furniture from British India and Ceylon, London, 2001, p. 189, no. 40, for a rosewood and ivory inlaid example of circa 1740-60).
A similar toilet mirror was formerly in the collection of Brigadier General Hubert Horatio Shirley Morant of The Hermitage, Hexham (sold Bonhams London, 20 November 2013, lot 145, £6,250); and a further example was sent by a relation in India to Mary Oliphant on the occasion of her marriage in 1754 (sold anonymously; Phillips London, 27 November 1990, lot 91).
A similar toilet mirror was formerly in the collection of Brigadier General Hubert Horatio Shirley Morant of The Hermitage, Hexham (sold Bonhams London, 20 November 2013, lot 145, £6,250); and a further example was sent by a relation in India to Mary Oliphant on the occasion of her marriage in 1754 (sold anonymously; Phillips London, 27 November 1990, lot 91).