A highly important and rare Anglo-Indian engraved ivory-inlaid padouk writing and dressing table and dressing glass circa 1750, Vizagapatam

the rectangular top centered by a figured padouk panel, within a wide border inlaid with large flowers within scrolling tendrils with small leaves tied at each corner with ribbons, the projecting molded ivory edge with ribbons and foliage, above a long drawer with similar flower borders over a central recessed kneehole flanked by four drawers with similarly inlaid borders enclosed within foliate engraved ivory bands and retaining their original open pierced and scrolled escutcheons with loop handles, the kneehole fitted with a sliding cabinet with three pigeon holes enclosed within arcading above three drawers similarly bordered to the outer drawers, the conforming base with a foliate engraved ivory molding and supported on ogee bracket feet, the sides similarly inlaid with wide borders of ribbon-tied large flowers and leafy tendrils; the dressing glass with a beveled mirror-plate with upper re-entrant corners within a conforming frame inlaid with a running pattern of leaves and flowers on an easel support similarly inlaid, the base with a wide ribbon-tied border of flowers above a central concave-fronted drawer and two small doors with engraved ivory banding, each flanked by tapered reeded ivory columns with foliate and petal capitals and turned toes.

Mallet & Son, London

Acquired from the above, 2002

Lanto Synge, Mallett’s Great English Furniture, 1991, p. 184, fig. 210

This rare writing and dressing table, the design of which is based on a contemporary English model, belongs to a very small group of associated tables which are similarly inlaid. Only one other example appears to be recorded which has the same arrangement within the kneehole, (sold from The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Cotton, Sotheby’s, London, November 14, 1975), although it does not appear to slide forward as in the present example. A miniature example completely veneered in ivory was sold Sotheby’s, London, March 8, 1985, lot 155, and another with a kneehole with drawers from Englefield House, Berkshire is illustrated by Amin Jaffer (Furniture from British India and Ceylon, fig. 85).

Another group of tables of the same proportions and similarly inlaid is also recorded, the drawers within the kneehole being of concave-form rising to a semi-domed arch. Two of these are shown in a photograph dated 1927 in the State Drawing Room, Wentworth Castle, Stainborough, Yorkshire, their current location being unknown, and another now at Powys Castle (Mildred Archer, Treasures from India, pl. 101, p. 81). This was almost certainly acquired by ‘Clive of India’, Robert Clive, Lord Clive of Plessey (1725-74), in India and is described in an inventory dated 1774 as ‘A Curious commode Chest of Composed of Rosewood (sic) inlaid with Ivory and Silver mounted mark’d A6’. It is interesting to note that, as in the present example, the bracket feet are replaced. Archer (op. cit.) remarking that ‘Most surviving pieces of this kind have feet of plain polished wood, probably added in Europe to replace flimsier originals – or the tables may have been supplied without feet’.         

See:

Francis Lenygon, Decoration in England from 1640-1560. 1927, p. 17, fig. 13, the State Drawing Room, Wentworth Castle, Yorkshire

Sotheby's Parke-Bernet, Art at Auction 1975-1976, 1976, a similar desk, sold London, November 14, 1975, lot 68, from The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Cotton

Mildred Archer et. al., Treasures from India – The Clive Collection at Powys Castle, 1987, pl. 101, pp. 81-82

Lucy Wood, The Lady Lever Art Gallery – Catalogue of Commodes, 1994, pp. 273-275, no. 35, figs. i-ix