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Footstool
Tribhuvan, Chhaganlal - Enlarge image
Footstool
- Place of origin:
Baroda, India (made)
- Date:
19th century (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Tribhuvan, Chhaganlal (maker)
Tribhuvan, Vrajlal (maker) - Materials and Techniques:
Carved rosewood, covered with sheet silver
- Credit Line:
Curzon Bequest
- Museum number:
IM.289-1927
- Gallery location:
In store
Although this piece of furniture is recorded as a footstool, in a traditional Indian interior, where people typically sat cross-legged on the floor, it might have been used as a low table. In India the practice of covering furnishings with sheets of precious metal is an ancient one, and was the norm for furniture intended for deities and royalty. The underside of this footstool is signed in Gujarati by the makers: 'Mistry Raghunath Tribhuvan's children Chhaganlal and Vrajlal'. The footstool was made for the Delhi Exhibition of 1903-1904. This was a vast fair of Indian arts and manufactures organised by Lord Curzon, the Viceroy of India, to coincide with the Delhi Durbar, held to commemorate the accession to the British throne of King Edward VII. Lord Curzon was himself an avid collector of Indian art and purchased this piece at the Delhi Exhibition.
