Lavishly carved table from the Bombay Province, dating to the mid-19th century.

Table; blackwood (?), carved. The table top is round and stands on six legs, their knees carved profusely with floral and foliate patterns such as adorn the apron. A carved leaf issuing from a rosette protrudes from the apron and rests on the upper knee of each of the legss. The lower legs are carved with serpents' scales and the feet are in the form of open-jawed beasts. Each leg bears a carved scroll stretcher which joins into a finial under the centre of the table top. At some point the table top has been covered with a loose cover under which has been stuffed a folded piece of foam. Perhaps for this reason this article has hitherto been considered to be a piano stool. The carving is crude.

The table was part of a suite of furniture bought in India after the marriage, in 1868, of James Richard Naylor and Eleanor Hoxton. This piece was given to the V&A by Misses J.L and B. Naylor in 1983.

Since the mid-19th century the term 'Bombay Blackwood' has been used to refer to richly carved furniture based on Victorian prototypes and made in the Bombay Presidency. This stool is a typical example of such work - it is lavishly decorated with deeply carved decoration of foliage and beasts. At a time when fine furniture was characterised by rich ornament, such pieces were highly regarded and much sought after.

When the piece was acquired by the V&A, the table top had been covered with a loose cover under which had been stuffed a folded piece of foam. Perhaps for this reason this article was initially described by Museum curators as a stool.

IS.58-1983