A Dutch colonial ebonised hardwood two-part settee, Batavia (Indonesia) circa 1700

overall delicately carved in half relief with flowers and foliage, moulded backrest with flower bud finials and pierced with twist-turned railing, slightly downscrolling arms on twist-turned supports, moulded apron on twist -turned and block legs, on bun feet, restorations

Eliëns, T.M. (red), Wonen op de Kaap en in Batavia, Zwolle/Den Haag 2002, p. 75.

Veenendaal, J., Furniture from Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India during the Dutch period, Delft 1985, pp. 61-66.

Terwen -de Loos, J., Het Nederlandse Koloniale Meubel, Franeker 1985, pp. 19-48.

 

This lot with exotic carved flowers show us the mixture of Dutch Colonial furniture in the late 17th century. The characteristic floral carving has been developed on the Coromandel coast in India. From there it spread to the other Dutch territories by Indian slaves, by the transport of gravestones whit similar decorations and through samples of Indian textiles. Two types of settees can be distinguished; the settee on which one could sit and another type known as the "lui- of slaapbank" (a kind of daybed). Through the years the shape of the settee hardly changed, with exeption of the way the the stretchers are joined, settees with an X- or Y-shaped stretcher are of later date. Becouse of its lenght and depth, the settee now offered for sale in our Amsterdam Salesrooms, belong to the second type. The shape of the armrests and the type of carving direct to the area of Batavia. This particular carving can also de seen in the chased decorations on the V.O.C silver objects, especially on the so called "plooischotels".  A very similar settee belongs to the collection of the Tropen Museum, Amsterdam (inv.nr. 1295-97) and was on view at the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag during the exhibition ´Wonen op de Kaap en in Batavia 1602-1795´(cat. nr. 18).

A similar settee has been sold in our rooms at Sotheby's Amsterdam AM0891, 24 june 2003, lot 15.