| Anglo-Indian | 03355-M00524 |
An 1830 Anglo-Indian Solid Ebony, Bone and Exotic Specimen Wood Parquetry Side Table including rosewood, calamander, ebony, hardwood, mahogany, and bone. The top form of spiraling petal inlays of exotic woods is raised on a distinctive carved tripod pedestal with peacock head feet. Created in the Galle District of Ceylon, famous in the 19th c. for its specimen-wood furniture, remarked upon by a traveler in 1848 who described a tea table as a ‘fine specimen of the Point-de-Galle inlaid work, on which we are expended the varied beauties of Ceylon’s ninety-nine species of costly wood. The skillful artificers of Galle tempt the traveler with exquisite productions of their art’; in 1850 H. C. Sirr wrote that in Galle one could find ‘those exquisite inlaid articles, which far surpass any specimen of Tunbridge ware that has yet been produced… various colored native woods are inlaid upon the ebony and the designs are well defined, the effect produced is magnificent.’
