Indo-American Aesthetic Movement Teak and Oak Desk

ca. 1880-1890, attributed to Lockwood de Forest, Ahmedabad, India and New York, the top with a carved vertical edge, the case with a pair of carved frieze drawers over narrow drawers with like carving, raised on square legs carved in similar motifs, the legs joined by a low shelf, the carved surfaces executed in teak and carved from the solid, rather than applied, drawer bottoms in poplar, the rear legs and some structural elements in oak.
h. 29", w. 43-1/2", d. 21-1/2"

Notes: Lockwood de Forest's Ahmedabad Wood Carving Company in India engaged carvers who utilized the traditional motifs and methods that had been a longstanding tradition in the region. Those elements were sent to New York to be employed in interiors executed by Louis Comfort Tiffany and Associated Artists, as well as the wares of the firm, Tiffany and de Forest, and de Forest's own furniture firm. The presence of oak for the back legs and poplar drawer bottoms suggests the present piece was assembled in New York using carved elements produced in Ahmedabad. A server with apparently identical carving along the edge of the top, and similar legs, attributed to de Forest, is in the collection of The Art Institute of Chicago. Similar carvings are illustrated in de Forest's subsequent publication of his sketches from the period in Illustrations of Design Based on Notes of Line as Used by the Craftsmen of India, 1912.

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