Ivory-inlaid and veneered furniture of Vizagapatnam, India, 1700-1825.

The ivory-inlaid and veneered furniture made in Vizagapatam (also called Vishakhapatnam), India (Pl. II), in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries presents an interesting case of the swiftness with which furniture designs were transmitted from cosmopolitan centers to the colonial periphery at that time. The city was the center of textile production and had the only natural harbor between Madras and Calcutta on the Bay of Bengal. This combination attracted European settlers, who introduced a demand for western-style furniture. The timber required was readily available from nearby forests, and foreign timber and imported mounts and mirrors could all be easily landed in the port. [1] The port was frequented by both European vessels traveling between Europe and Canton (now Gougangzhou), and smaller native craft trading along the coast, both of which provided a convenient and reliable method of exporting furniture to foreign markets. [2]

Little is known about wood and ivory work at Vizagapatam before the arrival of the Europeans in the region in the mid-seventeenth century. The practice of engraving ivory on furniture for royal consumption apparently existed in coastal Orissa, immediately north of Vizagapatam, and might have inspired the local use of the technique. [3] Writing slopes (portable slant-front desks) and rifle and shot-gun boxes with marquetry decoration are likely to have been brought with them by Europeans coming to Vizagapatam and could have provided inspiration for the first inlaid furniture made there. The furniture reflects both German ivory inlay and designs on textiles produced locally for the European market. The first such furniture can be dated on stylistic grounds to the beginning of the eighteenth century, although the earliest references to the industry are somewhat later. Major John Corneille (b. c. 1727) wrote in the l750s that Vizagapatam "chintz is esteemed the best in India for the brightness of its colours" an d that "the place is likewise remarkable for its inlay work, and justly, for they do it to the greatest perfection." [4]

In 1757, during the Anglo-French wars (1756-1763), Vizagapatam fell into French hands but was restored to the East India Company with the aid of the maharaja of Vizianagram in 1758. The entire Northern Circars were ceded to the company nearly ten years later.

Vizagapatam's temperate climate and lush hilly landscape made it something of a watering hole, favorably commented on by travelers between Madras and Calcutta. [5] Eliza Fay (1756-1816) arrived in the town in 1814 and "bought some beautiful sandal-wood and ivory boxes, for which this place is so famous." [6] Henrietta Clive (1758-1830) also made some purchases, writing to her father in 1801 that "we have seen the people inlaying the Ivory it appears very simple." [7] Official reports such as James Grant's Political Survey of the Northern Circars of 1786, also refer to "the art of painting, or inlaying ivory and blackwood" practiced at Vizagapatam. [8]

In the first half of the eighteenth century ebony rosewood, and padouk were inlaid with floral designs ivory that was then engraved and highlighted with lac. The ivory was cut to pattern and sliced into veneers between 3/32 and 1/8 inch thick. These were glued into corresponding recesses in the carcass, with the mastic forming a black outline around the ivory. Once inlaid and engraved, the ivory was rubbed over with melted lac, generally black, but sometimes colored, the residue scraped off, and the surface polished.

Large pieces of furniture such as the desk-and-bookcase shows in Plates VIII and VIIIa, sets of chairs, and kneehole dressing tables did figure among the manufactures of eighteenth-century Vizagapatam workshops, but the greater part of the trade was in portable furniture and boxes that could be easily transported. Motifs varied, and several standard patterns evolved, some of which relate to designs on locally produced chintzes. These include flowering trees (Pl. VII) and bold scrolling borders. Tracing the evolution of motifs is perhaps best achieved by studying tea caddies, most of which have English hallmarked handles and some of which contain hallmarked English silver canisters. The hallmarks make it possible to establish the latest year the boxes could have been made. [9]

Boxes for storing betel nut and jewelry were also made, as were small cabinets with drawers for the dressing table, which were commonly fitted with looking glasses and had compartments or ins, jewelry powder, and perfume. Early examples of these dressing table cabinets often had an arcaded frieze fitted with drawers of the kind found on Queen Anne escritories, which were widely copied in Canton for e European market. The cabinets made in Vizagapatam were commonly mounted with looking glasses out of proportion to the cabinet owing to the haphazard supply of mirror plates. In 1754 Mary Oliphant was sent such a cabinet as a wedding present from a relation in India, and it passed down in her family until 1989, when it was auctioned in London (Fig. 1). These and other cabinets were clearly standardized and were either sold separately or mounted on stands (see Pl. III).