n character as regards the treatment of scrolls,
flowers, and foliage, shew unmistakcably the influence of French taste in
their general form and contour. Articles, such as boxes, stands for gongs,
etc., are to be found carved in sandal wood, and in _dalburgia,_ or black
wood, with rosewood mouldings; and a peculiar characteristic of this
Indian decoration, sometimes applied to such small articles of furniture,
is the coating of the surface of the wood with red lacquer, the plain
parts taking a high polish while the carved enrichment remains dull. The
effect of this is precisely that of the article being made of red sealing
wax, and frequently the minute pattern of the carved ornament and its
general treatment tend to give an idea of an impression made in the wax by
an elaborately cut die. The casket illustrated on p. 134 is an example of
this treatment. It was exhibited in 1851.

The larger examples of Indian carved woodwork are of teak; the finest and
most characteristic specimens within the writer's knowledge are the two
folding doors which were sent as a present to the Indian Government, and
are in the Indian Museum. They are of seventeenth century work, and are
said to have enclosed a library at Kerowlee. While the door frames are of
teak, with the outer frames carved with bands of foliage in high relief,
the doors themselves are divided into panels of fantastic shapes, and yet
so arranged that there is just sufficient regularity to please the eye.
Some of these panels are carved and enriched with ivory flowers, others
have a rosette of carved ivory in the centre, and pieces of talc with
green and red colour underneath, a decoration also found in some Arabian
work. It is almost impossible to convey by words an adequate description
of these doors; they should be carefully examined as examples of genuine
native design and workmanship. Mr. Pollen has concluded a somewhat
detailed account of them by saying:--"For elegance of shape and
proportion, and the propriety of the composition of the frame and
sub-divisions of these doors, their mouldings and their panel carvings and
ornaments, we can for the present name no other example so instructive.
We are much reminded by this decoration of the pierced lattices at the
S. Marco in Venice."

[Illustration: Casket of Indian Lacquer Work.]

There is in the Indian Museum another remarkable specimen of native
furniture--namely, a chair of the purest beaten gold of octagonal shap