Indo-portuguese table decorated with geometric motifs of intersecting circles, with ivory and ebony stars inside. The table consists of a top decorated entirely with these geometric motifs, framed by ebony wood. The fronts of the two drawers have similar decor with lock mirrors in gilded copper, having two handles each drawer. The legs have double beams, finishing in shaped Jatayu feet - a bird of Hindu mythology. The furniture decorated this way - with the structures in teak and inlaid ebony and ivory (in its natural color) in the form of geometric pattern - is attributable to Goa region. "The reference model is peninsular inspiration, feet lyre-shaped connected by ornate beams. These tables suggest some observations: most of them have a protruding top; feet have multiple variants, product of the crossbreeding between the Western model and Hindu imagery."(1)
We know that the Indo-Portuguese furniture has been sold in almost all coastal regions of India where there were trading posts and fortifications, but its production can be confined to a few places that we know from written sources that refer to: Sinde and Ports Cambay, Chaul, Bassaim, Diu, Tana and, of course, Goa. It seems clear, however, by the same reports that the northern productions of India, or the Northern province of the Portuguese Impire in India productions, either the Mughal Empire productions, were all richer and precious: according the Professor Pedro Dias (2): "François de Laval Pyrard clearly made reference to the Cambay and Surat, where two or three times a year, came caravans of three or four hundred ships, bringing couches and painted and lacquered beds, chairs, stools and footstools; ... they manufacture other offices in the way of Germany, inlaid with mother of pearl, ivory, gold, silver and precious stones, all done with great aplomb. The make other small counters, safes and boxes in turtleshell …"(3) The chronicler João de Barros echoed what was heard in Lisbon, saying Patane, for example, could compare to Florence or Milan, and there was all kinds of beds, chairs, vases, weapons, etc., exported to other regions of India.
Jan Huygen van Linschoten at Sinde wrote: "... they do all kinds of desks, cabinets, trash bags, boxes, sticks and a thousand other similar trinkets and curiosities all built and hewn with mother of pearl, and all brought to all India, and especially for Goa and Kochi at the time that the Portuguese ships there are carring …"(4)
It is curious that do not appear explicit references to the manufacture of furniture in the city of Goa. Pyrard of Laval, for example, speaks of the work that is exercised in Ribeira and also elsewhere alluding to stonecutters, goldsmiths and precious objects manufacturers, stating that they were in streets, but says nothing about the furniture. Can be deduced, by its omission, extends to other coeval authors and travelers, that the furniture or was made in the surrounding villages or came from the North and from Cochin, in the south. "However, we can not rule out the existence of woodworkers and carvers workshops that made also religious furniture. The famous chests that are still preserved in Old Goa and in Panjim Institute, and others in Goan villages rim prove the local manufacture of these furniture, if possible, from them, establish decorative and common technics and typologies.” (5)
We understand that the Goan production characteristics are those that still can be seen in the sacristy chests and cabinets that found in the Main Church of Goa, the Professed House of the Good Jesus and other sacristy of Goan churches. Also pieces of furniture that are preserved in some houses of traditional Goan families. Many of these furniture are large, which suggests were made on site.
Its characteristics are essentially the following: teak wooden structures with application of ebony and or indian rose wood with nature motivs, sometimes with animals (birds and lions) or repeated geometric patterns: intersecting circles with stars inside, lozenges; triangles and squares. Generally over the decoration, we found gilded copper fittings, complementing the decoration of the object.
This extraordinary table is published in the reference work on Indo-Portuguese furniture by emeritus professor Pedro Dias see DIAS, Pedro, Indo-Portuguese Furniture, Moreira de Cónegos, Imaginalis, 2013, pp. 190-191.
(1) SOUSA, Conceição Borges, Grammaire d’une Collection, Reflets de Deux Langages, Catalogue d’Exposition La Route des Indes, p.43.
(2) DIAS, Pedro, O Contador das Cenas Familiares – o Quotidiano dos Portugueses de Quinhentos na Índia na decoração de um Móvel Indo-portguês, Voc Lda, Porto, 2002.
(3) Viagem de Francisco Pyrard de Laval, (1611), ed. De J. H. da Cunha Rivara e A. De Magalhães Basto, Porto, 1944, Vol.II, p.185.
(4) Jan Huygen van Linschoten, Itinerário, Viagem ou Navegação de Jan Huygen van Linschoten para as Índias Orientais Portuguesas, (1596), ed. De Arie Pos e Rui Manuel Loureiro, Lisboa, 1997, p.93.
(5) DIAS, Pedro, Op. Cit., Porto, 2002, pp.35-54.
