A platform cabinet with six drawers simulating nine, with stand. teak and sissoo decoration with ivory inlays "Secant circles" (inverted) with centres in ivory and bone dyed green, bands with ivory and sandalwood inlays “Four-petal flowers”, stand with two drawers, large drawer and carved and polychrome legs "Nagas seated on reclining lions", pierced and gilt copper applications en relief Indo-Portuguese 16th/17th C. small restoration, faults on polychrome Dimensões (altura x comprimento x largura) - (total) 82,7 x 55 x 44 cm Notes: This small cabinet on a stand is constructed from teak, veneered with East Indian rosewood, and decorated with ivory, sandalwood, and green-dyed bone inlays, pinned with brass pins. The complex inlaid decoration, of interlocking circles and narrow borders of
alternating quatrefoils in ivory and sandalwood, is further highlighted by numerous pierced openwork fire-gilt copper fittings, including corner braces protecting the edges, escutcheon- shaped lock plates and spiralled pulls, cast spiralled side handles, and large swirling dome- shaped nails. The caisson is fitted with six drawers, designed to mimic nine for the sake of symmetry, arranged in three tiers, with each drawer front featuring its own lock plate and twopulls.
The stand features two drawers on the top register, and a large drawer beneath, similarl decorated with a pattern of interlocking circles typical of this production. The legs, carved from solid teak, take the form of nagini—mythical beings depicted with the head and torso of a woman touching her breasts, symbolising fertility, and a coiled serpent as the lower body. In Hindu culture, nagas and their female counterparts, nagini, are revered nature spirits associated with water. They are considered protectors of springs and wells, propitiators of rain, and symbols of fertility. The nagini also serve an apotropaic function, warding off evil and
protecting the valuables stored within such furniture. The coiled lower bodies of the nagini rest on carved crouching lions. One unusual feature of this diminutive cabinet on stand, likely to be placed on a dais covered by textiles as was customary in Portuguese noble and patrician households, is that the carved legs and feet were once painted with vibrant colours, including
red and green. This colourful decoration survives only partially. Given that sixteenth-century Portuguese records mention the village of Taná, or Thane—today part of the city of Mumbai (Bombay)—as home to a flourishing community of Muslim craftsmen and a centre for producing precious marquetry furniture, it is highly probable that this cabinet originated in Thane, then part of the Northern Province of the Portuguese State of India. This exquisite cabinet on a stand belongs to an exceptional group of rare, early furniture made for the Portuguese market, whose geographical origin, decorative inspirations (Iranian, Ottoman, and European), and historical production context have only recently been identified. 3 A similar cabinet on stand of this size belongs to a private collection in Lisbon.
Another, much larger (110.0 x 67.0 x 41.0 cm) and also in a Portuguese private collection, was published by Pedro Dias.4

 See Hugo Miguel Crespo, Choices, Lisbon, AR-PAB, 2016, pp. 136-171, cat. 15; and Idem, India in Portugal. A Time of Artistic Confluence (cat.), Porto, Bluebook, 2021, pp. 88-104.
 Pedro Dias, Mobiliário Indo-Português, Moreira de Cónegos, Imaginalis, 2013,  p. 266.