A Splendid Vizagapatam Toilet Glass (c. 1790 India)

6723

Ivory Wood

56.50 cm wide   94.00 cm high   33.00 cm deep

22.24 inches wide  37.01 inches high  12.99 inches deep

Vizagapatam, a port on the Coromandel Coast, facing the Bay of Bengal, is a natural harbour, and was one of the earliest bases of the British East Indies Company, who established a base there in 1683. Situated on the trade route from the far east, it had ready supplies of local material in exotic woods, and ivory, and into the traditional crafts of furniture making were soon incorporated the manufacture of furniture in the English taste, but modified by the local handiwork, much as Chinoiserie was adapted to European cabinet forms. A visitor in 1756, Major John Corneille, remarked of its’ ‘inlay work and they justly do it to the greatest perfection’.

This wonderful piece relates very closely to an example that may be seen in the Indian section at the Victoria and Albert Museum; the design for both has been drawn from the ‘Cabinet Maker and Upholsterer’s Guide’ published in 1788 by George Hepplewhite, who illustrates ‘dressing mirrors’ of similar design in plates 70 &71.

Literature; Amin Jaffer’s ‘Furniture from British India and Ceylon’ published by V&A Publications, London 2001, illustrates the V&A mirror, and provides important information on the Vizagapatam furniture trade.

Excellent

Constructed of Sandalwood, ivory veneered, engraved and highlighted with penwork decoration. Rising from shaped bracket feet, of stepped form with a pagoda form top, containing nine drawers, the lowest of which holds nine removable shaped lidded compartments, with silvered brass handles; above, the elliptical looking glass retains its’ original mercury plate mirror, supported by uprights of lyre form, and having a ribband crested swag atop. The whole is decorated in the neo-classical manner, with floral swags issuing from central vases; floral sprays to the sides.

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