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Table
Unknown - Enlarge image
Table
- Place of origin:
Hoshiarpur, India (made)
- Date:
ca. 1880 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Unknown (production)
- Materials and Techniques:
Shisham wood, inlaid with ivory and ebony
- Museum number:
IS.2376-1883
- Gallery location:
British Galleries, room 125f, case 1
Object Type
Although Turkish in inspiration, octagonal tables of this form were made in several parts of late 19th-century British India. They were produced principally in response to the growing fashion in Europe for Middle Eastern and Islamic furnishings and decorative accessories. This table is of a standard type made in large numbers in Hoshiarpur, a town in the Punjab known for its workmanship in ivory and ebony inlay.
Trading
Although this table was purchased in the Punjab by Caspar Purdon Clarke (1846-1911), others like it were available at retail outlets throughout India and in Europe and America. They were exported in vast quantities by Hoshiarpur furniture dealers. In London they were advertised by Liberty & Co., which features identical examples in a catalogue of 1896.
Ownership & Use
Tables of this form were used a central decorative feature for interiors conceived in an Islamic style. These were much in vogue in the 1880s and 1890s, particularly for men's smoking rooms. Typical features of these rooms included tented ceilings, tiles and turned lattice panels (mashrabiyya) mounted on the walls, richly cushioned banquettes, huqqas, low square or octagonal tables, Qu'ran stands and hanging lanterns.
