Bombay furniture

[2] 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 Dutch.

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.

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.

The inlaying materials consist of the wire,[clarification needed] sandal wood, sappanwood, ebony, ivory and stags' horns, and the effect produced by the combination of minute pieces of these various substances is altogether peculiar and distinctive.