Dutch Colonial 17th Century Ebony Center 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

Note:

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.