A pair of mother-of-pearl wooden window shutters, India, Gujarat, 18th century

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Gujarat, in Western India, was a centre for mother-of-pearl work, which was in high demand both locally and abroad. Records indicate that Gujarat is first mentioned as a mother-of-pearl production centre in 1502 when the King of Melinde on the East Coast of Africa presented Vasco da Gama with a bedstead from Cambay, a port city in Gujarat, fashioned from mother-of-pearl and gold (A. Jaffer, Luxury Goods from India, London, London, 2002, p.22). Dated evidence is also provided by a work in situ in India: the cenotaph of the tomb of Sheikh Salim Chishti, at Fatehpur-Sikri, 1569-85 which is decorated with mother-of-pearl revetment on a wooden canopy.

Jaffer suggests that Gujarati mother-of-pearl items can be classified into two broad groups. The first group comprises of objects made of wood covered with a dark resin which are then inset with mother-of-pearl sections in geometric, vegetal and sometimes figurative motifs. The second group consists of items which are either entirely made of mother-of-pearl pieces or have a wooden base which is overlaid with mother-of-pearl. This pair of wooden shutters belongs to the latter group (ibid.) This method of arranging mother-of-pearl plaques secured by metal pins on a wooden base can be seen on various luxury items dating from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. These include ewers and basins, drinking vessels, caskets, powder horns, and ceremonial maces, to name a few.

The form of this pair of shutters with its cusped archway is closely comparable to a larger pair of mother-of-pearl doors dated to the eighteenth century, sold in these rooms, 24 October 2007, lot 219. Another pair of mother-of-pearl doors of comparable form dated to the eighteenth/nineteenth century sold in these rooms, 6 October 2010, lot 237.