A Fine and Rare Pair of Indian mother-of-pearl doors, Gujarat, India, 18th century

of rectangular form with two narrow doors, the wood body painted red and mounted with a cusped archway and a reticulated fretwork of recessed geometric niches decorated with plaques of mother-of-pearl and brass floral bosses, each door with a central brass lotus petal escutcheon with ring handle

These beautifullly decorated doors recall the revetment seen on the canopy of the tomb of Shaikh Salim ad-Din Chishti, at Fatehpur Sikri. The decoration of the cenotaph was carried out by Gujarati craftsmen between 1570 and 1584.  Gujarat is first recorded as the centre of mother-of-pearl production in 1502, when the King of Melinde presented Vasco de Gama with a 'bedstead of Cambay, wrought with gold and mother-of-pearl' (Jaffer 2002, p.22.) and Abu'l Fazl's Ain-i Akbari  (1595) mentions sarkar Ahmedabad as a centre of production 'Designers, wood-inlayers and countless other craftsmen so set mother-of-pearl that it appears a fine, and make pen-boxes and coffers and the like of these.' (ibid p.24).