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Lot Essay
The Sadeli technique was a 19th century speciality of various locations in the Bombay Presidency, including Bombay itself, Surat, Ahmedabad and Bilmora. It was characterised by a geometric mosaic composed of various woods, metal and ivory, ingeniously cut and laid over flat surfaces, most commonly in the form of dressing and sewing-boxes, writing-cases, ink-stands, picture frames and other small functional objects. This was usually employed in combination with sandalwood, occasionally in the solid but more commonly as veneers or linings, which was imported from the Malabar coast.
The practice actually had its origins in Shiraz, Persia via Sindh in the mid-16th century, but firmly provenanced objects from the Bombay area include a workbox in the Clive collection at Powis Castle, sent to the 2nd Lord Clive in 1802. Queen Charlotte had three boxes 'of Bombay manufacture' listed in the catalogue of her possessions in 1815 and the collector William Beckford also owned a 'Bombay work box'. By the second quarter of the 19th century it was common enough in England to be widely known as 'Bombay work'.
Gradually the craftsmen responsible for their manufacture started to incorporate carved panels of sandalwood in addition to the mosaic work. The technique was well represented at international exhibitions; the 1873 Vienna Exhibition offered over 750 examples and the London firm of Liberty & Co. advertised Bombay work in their catalogues of 1884 and 1898, even bringing over from Bombay craftsmen to demonstrate their work at the model Indian village in Battersea Park in 1895 (see Amin Jaffer, Furniture from British India and Ceylon, London, 2001, pp. 313 - 315, and p. 317, no. 130).
A table of similar design was exhibited by Framjee Pestonjee Bhumgara in the Pondicherri Court at the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1889 (Amin Jaffer, Furniture from British India and Ceylon, London, 2001. Page 315, fig.130, and another, possibly the same table, was sold Christie’s, London, 16 January 2007, lot 201 (£15,600 including premium).
The practice actually had its origins in Shiraz, Persia via Sindh in the mid-16th century, but firmly provenanced objects from the Bombay area include a workbox in the Clive collection at Powis Castle, sent to the 2nd Lord Clive in 1802. Queen Charlotte had three boxes 'of Bombay manufacture' listed in the catalogue of her possessions in 1815 and the collector William Beckford also owned a 'Bombay work box'. By the second quarter of the 19th century it was common enough in England to be widely known as 'Bombay work'.
Gradually the craftsmen responsible for their manufacture started to incorporate carved panels of sandalwood in addition to the mosaic work. The technique was well represented at international exhibitions; the 1873 Vienna Exhibition offered over 750 examples and the London firm of Liberty & Co. advertised Bombay work in their catalogues of 1884 and 1898, even bringing over from Bombay craftsmen to demonstrate their work at the model Indian village in Battersea Park in 1895 (see Amin Jaffer, Furniture from British India and Ceylon, London, 2001, pp. 313 - 315, and p. 317, no. 130).
A table of similar design was exhibited by Framjee Pestonjee Bhumgara in the Pondicherri Court at the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1889 (Amin Jaffer, Furniture from British India and Ceylon, London, 2001. Page 315, fig.130, and another, possibly the same table, was sold Christie’s, London, 16 January 2007, lot 201 (£15,600 including premium).