When looking at the inventories of wealthier Dutchmen, particularly the few that have listed prices, one can safely draw the conclusion that ebony furniture was relatively expensive. Timber had a substantial influence on the object’s value, and ebony was the most highly priced species. When we look at the inventory of Jan Janszoon Menie from 1648, the selling price of 51 reals for his ebony bed (including hangings) is quite steep, being nearly as much as a golden, pearlencrusted tiara or his pregnant female slave.79 Also, the price is considerably higher than a gilded bed with its hangings, which only fetched 28 reals. One can conclude from the inventories that furniture in general, but ebony furniture in particular was estimated at a fair price, much higher than varnished examples. When keeping in mind that a regular soldier or sailor earned a monthly wage of around 10 guilders, whereas the ship’s captain earned as much as up to 80 guilders a month, this would still require the captain to pay more than two months’ wages for a bed such as the one owned by Menie. One can therefore fairly safely conclude that the possession of luxury, ebony furniture was likely to have been reserved only for those of higher rank. And as we discussed earlier, the number of servants in Batavia who might have invested in expensive furniture would have been limited, due to its price and the uncertain lifestyles of its owners. We’ve also noticed that furniture was a much coveted item in the second-hand market, continually being resold and bought by repatriates and newcomers. So ebony furniture was probably less common and more valuable in the 17th century than was previously thought. This also supports the strong suspicion that a large portion of the currently known ebony furniture in museum collections was made at a later date; a suspicion that has been amplified by the findings during the conservation and was already suggested by De Haan in 1922: ‘The well [of original 17th-century furniture in native homes] has long dried up. (...) In general one may assume that virtually everything is now in the hands of Europeans and one must be most prudent when such items are offered by the natives or Chinese.’80
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