Sri Lankan Specimen Table

Ebony Specimen Table

This pleasing table of elegant proportions was produced in south-western Sri Lanka, most probably in or around Galle, in the first third of the nineteenth century. The table almost certainly is based on a design by Thomas King, and English furniture pattern designer who published his The Modern Style of Cabinet Work Exemplified in 1829.

The hexagonal top is inlaid with a rosace in marquetry of exotic local woods, surrounded by a carved foliate ebony border. The leg and base, also of ebony, are elaborately carved with Neo-Classical flourishes.

The base sits on four splayed foliate legs. One drawer is contained beneath the top.

Jaffer, A.,

Furniture from British India and Ceylon: A Catalogue of the Collections in the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Peabody Essex Museum, Timeless Books, 2001.

UK art market