This rectangular tray with sloping borders, made from teak (Tectonagrandis) and East Indian rosewood (Dalbergia latifolia), is lavishlydecorated with inlays in sandalwood (Santalum album), elephantivory, and green-dyed bone, all secured with brass pins. The cornersare protected by gilt-copper openwork fittings.The decoration of the central well follows a carpet-like composition,with a large field featuring a polylobate rosette within acentral round medallion, flanked by flowering plants stemming fromvases. Between the field and the wide border (and between theseand the everted border), there is a narrow border of six-petalledrosettes alternating between ivory and sandalwood. The decorationof the wide border consists of scrolling flowers and, at the corners,nagini—figures from Hindu mythology with women’s heads andtorsos, touching their breasts as symbols of fertility, their lowerbodies resembling double-coiled serpents. The wide everted bordersfeatures a frieze of repeating flowering plants.The type of decoration, materials, and techniques used inthe manufacture of this unique tray point to an origin within theNorthern Province of the Portuguese State of India, likely Thane,a well-documented centre for lavish marquetry work.1 Consideringits size and exuberant decoration, this tray was probably intendedfor secular use, possibly for serving sweetmeats and other delicaciesin noble or patrician households.Rectangular trays with sloping sides were a common shape inChina during the late Ming dynasty. Sixteenth and seventeenth-centuryblue-and-white porcelain trays of this shape, like those madefrom lacquered wood, usually decorated with mother-of-pearlinlays, probably derive from metal prototypes in gold or silver.This may be ascertained from their square shape, straight angles and raised feet, following a construction, assembly and solderingtypical of metalwork.Similarly shaped trays can be observed in seventeen-centuryMughal paintings, used to display gems, jewellery, preciousmetalwork and luxury textiles. While lacking comparable earliervisual evidence which might better enlighten us on the emergenceof this shape in the Indian subcontinent, it is likely that it wasadopted from earlier East Asian models.Lacquered trays of this shape were also made in differentparts of Asia for export to Europe, namely to Portugal. A rare groupof differently-sized similarly shaped trays survives, encompassingexamples made mostly in China, but also Japan and probably theRyukyu Islands.2 Usually, such lacquered objects are describedin contemporary Portuguese household inventories as Chinese.Four ‘trays from China’ are recorded in the post mortem inventoriesof Fernando de Noronha (†1608), 3rd Count of Linhares, andhis wife Filipa de Sá (†1618).3 Of these, three featured the earl’scoat-of-arms, and were all ‘gilded and black’, that is lacquered inblack and decorated with gold; another three were added to them,totalling seven trays. These would have been similar to Chineselacquer trays in the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon (invs.1 Band, 2 Band, 3 Band, 5 Band, 26 Band, and 44 Band), some ofwhich have been scientifically analysed and their materials andtechniques identified.4 Alongside rare trays made in India anddecorated with marquetry, some carved examples also survivewith painted decoration.
HMC
1 For this production, see Crespo, Hugo Miguel, From the Northern Province. Marquetries and ‘Lacquerware’ from Portuguese India, Lisbon, São Roque Antiguidades & Galeria de Arte, 2024,pp. 8–24.
2 For an example made in China but most likely by a Japanese craftsman, see Canepa, Teresa et al., Depois dos Bárbaros II. Arte Namban para os mercados japonês, português e holandês, London,Jorge Welsh Books, 2008, pp. 336–339, cat. 48.
3 Crespo, Hugo Miguel, ‘Global Interiors on the Rua Nova in Renaissance Lisbon’, in Gschwend, Annemarie Jordan, Lowe, K. J. P. (eds.), The Global City. On the Streets of Renaissance Lisbon,London, Paul Holberton publishing, 2015, pp. 121–139, on p. 123.
4 Körber, Ulrike, Schilling, R., Michael, Dias, Cristina Barrocas, Dias, Luís, ‘Simplified Chinese lacquer techniques and Namban style decoration on Luso-Asian objects from the latesixteenth or early seventeenth centuries’, Studies in Conservation, 61, Supplement 3 (2016), pp. 68–84. One probably Japanese example belongs the same Lisbon museum (inv. 20 Band).