An Indonesian ebony centre table with marble top
Jakarta (Batavia) or Coromandel coast, 1650-1680
With shallow carvings of flowers and vines, on four double spiral legs, with grey marble top.
H. 75 x W. 117 x D. 74 cm
The table has shallow carvings on all sides and therefore probably was a centre table and not, for instance, the base for a cabinet. Furniture with the shallow carving of flowers and vines and the double spiralled legs, as in this table, belongs to the earliest types of furniture in Batavia. The grey marble top is similar to the grey marble top on an Indo-Portuguese ebony table illustrated in Het Nederlands Koloniale Meubel, J Terwen-de Loos, ill. 15. The Dutch did mine marble on the Coromandel Coast and in Indonesia in the 17th and 18th centuries, it was very expensive to ship marble from Indonesia to Holland before the beginning of the 20th century, so the owner of this table must have been very fortunate.
With shallow carvings of flowers and vines, on four double spiral legs, with grey marble top.
H. 75 x W. 117 x D. 74 cm
The table has shallow carvings on all sides and therefore probably was a centre table and not, for instance, the base for a cabinet. Furniture with the shallow carving of flowers and vines and the double spiralled legs, as in this table, belongs to the earliest types of furniture in Batavia. The grey marble top is similar to the grey marble top on an Indo-Portuguese ebony table illustrated in Het Nederlands Koloniale Meubel, J Terwen-de Loos, ill. 15. The Dutch did mine marble on the Coromandel Coast and in Indonesia in the 17th and 18th centuries, it was very expensive to ship marble from Indonesia to Holland before the beginning of the 20th century, so the owner of this table must have been very fortunate.
Part of the Indonesian Archipelago collection.
Related objects
A Moluccan red ebony centre table with marble top
The Moluccas/Ambon, third quarter 17th century
An Indonesian hinged spherical gold filigree container for a 'Pedro de Porco' (pig's stomach stone)
A Dutch-colonial ebony armchair with low-relief carving
This chair is an exceptionally fine example of shallow carving of flowers and curling leaves, and open carving of the Hamsa pũṭṭuva 'sacred goose or swan' a Singhalese ornament of Hinduism, in poetry standing for beautiful girls and the breast of women. This type of chair belongs to the earliest chairs imported into Batavia while all efforts were still focussed on building the city and there not yet was any furniture industry in Batavia.