A rare 18th century Anglo-Indian ivory-inlaid padouk table cabinet circa 1770, Vizagapatam

of rectangular upright form, the flat-figured top inlaid at the center with a vase issuing trailing flowers on a stepped plinth within a border of tied trailing leaves and flowers, and an engraved ivory outer molded edge, above two doors with sprays of bamboo within similar borders to the top, opening to an arrangement of pigeonholes above two short and three long drawers, all with borders of trailing leaves and flowers, the inner doors of figured wood, the sides with similar inlaid borders and fruiting palm trees, the ivory molded base with a scalloped edge with engraved flowerheads and supported on short ivory cabriole legs with claw-and-ball toes.

Sold, Christie's, London, July 8, 1999, lot 126

Monique Riccardi-Cubitt, The Art of the Cabinet, p. 201, fig. 126

Lanto Synge, Mallett Millenium, 1999, p. 101, fig. 97

This elegant small table cabinet is closely related to larger pieces of furniture including bureau cabinets and clothes presses produced under the direction of the East India Company in the Vizagapatam region of India. Similar bamboo trees are shown on the panels of a clothes press from the collection of David Styles, sold by Christie’s at Wateringbury Place, June 1-2, 1978, lot 627. Other cabinets, obviously from the same workshop, are recorded with different decoration to the doors and fitted with drawers not doors.

See:

Antique Dealer and Collector’s Guide, March 1970, Trade Advertisement, Lennox Money Antiques Ltd., a similar cabinet with plain doors

Mallett P. L. C., London, Trade Catalogue, 1998, p. 40, a similar cabinet with drawers to the front