Indo-Portuguese Cabinet

This pair of cabinets in teak, ebony and rosewood with inlaid ivory and nailing, corners, metal fittings and handles in yellow metal and copper, has none drawers on the upper part, followed by another two and two lockers. The feet represent Najien – demi-gods with human heads and bodies of serpents who live in the underworld and whose element is running water. These were pieces of furniture especially produced under commission in the Hindustan peninsula by local handicrafts people at trading posts of the Portuguese oriental provinces along the Malabar Coast. The cabinet with grid in Portuguese style became a piece with practical functions to keep documents or values and objects by the accountant or to keep money, jewels or important documents in its multiple drawers, distributed in a way to be easily found. The Indo-Portuguese cabinet reveals a symbiosis between Portuguese art, with a structure of two overlapped bodies, and Indian art, with the application of drawings, and original techniques with exotic materials and decorations.