An Anglo-Indian Vizagapatam ivory-inlaid table bureau with toilet glass, India, second quarter of the eighteenth century

veneered with ivory engraved and embellished with lac, with a later mirror plate, the drop front enclosing small drawers and pigeonholes above a drawer with dividers, on later turned bun feet 

This form of toilet glass with table bureau is based on a shape that was current in England in the first quarter of the eighteenth century and was copied by Indian craftsmen working for English patrons in India.  Whilst the English prototype tends to be plain and undecorated, the Indian variant is richly embellished in ivory with exotic foliage inspired by designs on contemporary Coromandel coast chintzes produced primarily for the Dutch market (Jaffer 2001, pp.189-190).

A very similar table bureau which belonged to Clive of India is now at Powis Castle (see Jaffer 2001, fig.73, p.172).