Foreword Over the last ten years, the Tropenmuseum has substantially improved the way it manages its collection, thanks to the ‘Heritage Extra’ funds, received from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs/Development Cooperation. Its storage facilities have been upgraded, it has carried out conservation treatment on several of its subcollections, and made its entire collection of items and photographs accessible to the public via internet. This publication too, on furniture from the Netherlands East Indies in the collection of the Tropenmuseum, was realized through funding from the same project. The Tropenmuseum possesses a substantial and important collection of furniture from the former Netherlands East Indies. Over 60 items belong to the so-called category of ‘ebony furniture’, named after their commonly black appearance. It is somewhat surprising that this group of items has received very little scholarly attention through archival research or hands-on research on the items themselves. The modest amount of available literature leans heavily on a great number of assumptions and suspicions for which little historic evidence can be found. Many of these assumptions were already posed by the earliest works on the subject, and were later adapted by several new generations of researchers. It is therefore with great pride that the Tropenmuseum presents this publication, which is the result of a fouryear conservation and research project. The conservation project provided a unique opportunity for research on subjects such as timber species, lacquers and finishes, construction methods and the often debatable authenticity of many such items. We are convinced that the data that has been collected will be of great importance for future research on this unique group of furniture. Already, a number of remarkable conclusions can be drawn from these results; conclusions that force us to alter our current views on furniture from the Netherlands East Indies. The research by Dave van Gompel traces the history and assessment of furniture from the Netherlands East Indies, drawing on contemporary sources from the 16th through to the early 20th century. Highlights from the collection of the Tropenmuseum are discussed in a short catalogue. Joost Hoving and Reinier Klusener report the technical findings that resulted from conservation project carried out in their workshop. The Tropenmuseum would also like to express its gratitude to Iep Wiselius (Wiselius Raadgevend Adviesbureau) for his timber analysis, Henk van Keulen of the Dutch Institute of Cultural Heritage (RCE) for his analysis of finishing layers, and conservator Martijn de Ruijter of the Tropenmuseum, for his continued support during the project. Koos van Brakel – Head of Collections, Tropenmuseum
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