>Sauer202 at 07:46, 3 July 2021

2021-07-03T07:46:03Z

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{{Update-EB|date=November 2015}}
[[File:Bombay Lounge Chair in Nairobi.jpg|thumb|right|A Bombay lounge chair in Nairobi.]]
The term "'''Bombay'''" or "'''blackwood'''" applies to a rather extensive class of [[furniture]] pieces originally manufactured in the city of [[Bombay]] (now Mumbai) and in the towns of [[Surat]] and [[Ahmedabad]] in [[India]].<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=1|wstitle=Bombay Furniture |volume=4 |page=185}}</ref>

The wood used is [[Shisham]] or blackwood (''[[Dalbergia]]''), a hard-grained dark-colored timber which with proper treatment assumes a beautiful natural polish. Much of the so-called Bombay furniture is clumsy and inelegant in form, defects which it is suggested by experts, like Sir [[George Birdwood]], it owes to the circumstance that the original models were [[Netherlands|Dutch]]. Some of the smaller articles, such as [[flower stand]]s, small [[table (furniture)|table]]s, and [[ornamental stand]]s, are, however, of exceedingly graceful contour, and good examples are highly prized by collectors. The carving at its best is lace-like in character, and apart from its inherent beauty is attractive on account of the ingenuity shown by the worker in adapting his design in detail to the purpose of the article he is fashioning.<ref name="EB1911"/>

The workmen who manufacture the most artistic Bombay furniture are a special class with inherited traditions. Often a man knows only one design, which has been transmitted to him by his father, who in his turn had had it from his father before him. In the early 1900s under European auspices efforts were made with a certain measure of success to modernize the industry by introducing portions of the native work into furniture of Western design. In the main, however, the conventional patterns were still adhered to. Bombay boxes are [[inlay|inlaid]] in geometrical patterns on wood. The inlaying materials consist of the wire,{{clarify|date=June 2021}} [[sandal wood]], [[sappanwood]], [[ebony]], [[ivory]] and [[deer|stags]]' [[antler|horns]], and the effect produced by the combination of minute pieces of these various substances is altogether peculiar and distinctive.<ref name="EB1911"/>

== References ==
{{reflist}}

{{EB1911 article with no significant updates}}

[[Category:Indian furniture]]

Bombay furniture - Revision history

>Sauer202 at 07:46, 3 July 2021