AN EBONISED SPECIMEN TABLE, CEYLON, 19TH CENTURY

Estimate

R30,000 - R40,000

Hammer

R65,000

AN EBONISED SPECIMEN TABLE, CEYLON, 19TH CENTURY

More Information

The circular top inlaid with various timbers, egg-and-dart rim, foliate-carved frieze, raised on a foliate-carved support, on a quadripartite base, on flat bun feet
75cm high, 108cm diameter

The Galle District of Ceylon was famous in the nineteenth century for its specimen-wood furniture, remarked upon by a traveller 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 traveller with exquisite productions of their art". The woods probably used here include palm, calamander, tamarind, satinwood, jackwood and ebony. In 1850, H.C. Sir wrote that in Galle one could find "those exquisite inlaid articles, which far surpass any specimen of Tunbridge ware that has yet been produced-ivory and various coloured native woods are inlaid upon the ebony and as the designs are well defined, the effect produced is magnificent" (see A. Jaffer, Furniture from British India and Ceylon, 2001)