to decorative effect, probably following the European fashion of using brightly coloured timbers from the Western Indies. It is quite surprising that there is hardly any reference to furniture being of European design, even though a considerable amount has been left to us, to this day. However, Chinese, Japanese and Javanese items are typically very specifically mentioned. This does not necessarily mean that such items were made in these regions, but rather indicates a particular shape or design. An inventory from 1786 also mentions a number of English chairs. However, the majority of items have no regional indication whatsoever, perhaps suggesting that these were of a common European design. Clocks and mirrors are similarly no longer described as being Dutch, while it is well known that these items were generally imported from the homeland, even appearing in the Company’s official records.39 Furniture types vary little from the preceding centuries. New are the appearances of close stools, marble-topped tables, provision cupboards, game tables and a billiard table, the latter undoubtedly European. Also new are the descriptions of a ‘three-sided’ chair and several round chairs of a type that is currently best known as the burgomaster chair. Most of these furniture types can be found in the collections of Dutch museums. As the calamander cabinet from the catalogue demonstrates (p. 108), furniture of a purely European design was probably already being made in the Indies during the 17th century, but it is highly unlikely that this was carried out on a large scale; this cabinet is an extremely rare surviving example. After ebony furniture had become unfashionable during the early 18th century, European styles came to replace this curious Eurasian class of furniture. A short transitional phase occurred during the first quarter of the century, during which European shapes were incorporated into the existing designs of ebony furniture, resulting in some most peculiar hybrids, as can be seen in the catalogue (p. 118). The first European style that can be well distinguished in museum collections, is the Marot or Louis XIV-style. A table in the collection of the Tropenmuseum (p. 117) is clearly inspired by the Marot style from the earliest years of the 18th century. Although not quite as elaborately carved as its European counterparts, the table wholly captures the new style, yet betrays the Asian origins of the carver in the unmistakably Asian facial features of the caryatids. A more distinctly European and polychromed version of such a table is owned by the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag (OHO-1978-0002.) Another remarkable piece dating from the same period is a red lacquered and gilded chair in the Tropenmuseum (p. 112), in which the style seems to have been interpreted by a craftsman who had little experience with European furniture proportions. A similar chair can be found in the collection of the Rijksmuseum (BK-1972-67). Both the Louis-XIV and Louis-XV styles were well represented in the East Indies. Chairs, benches and cabinets form the major part of Dutch museum collections, some of which are so well made that they are very difficult to discern from their European counterparts if one only looks at their design. It is usually only the use of exotic timbers and the presence of rattan seats that betrays their origins,
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