'Gulnar' Oval Tray in Printed Wood

Provenance

The Gulnar oval tray belongs to the North Indian tradition of decorative woodware — wooden forms treated with surface print and sealed under a waterproof lacquer to produce objects that are functional and decorative in equal measure. The technique is screen or digitally-applied printing on a prepared wood surface, sealed under resin. The tradition comes from workshops in Delhi NCR and western Uttar Pradesh, where artisans adapt the vocabulary of India's painted and lacquered woodwork traditions to contemporary domestic forms.

The surface print on Gulnar draws from the floral ornamental vocabulary of the North Indian decorative tradition — the flower-and-vine compositions that appear in Mughal stone inlay work, block-printed textiles, and the painted borders of court manuscripts. The black and gold palette grounds the floral forms in a register of formal elegance: the warm gold against the dark outline, the ornament reading both at close range and from across the room. The oval form itself is characteristic of the serving tradition — the elongated tray that accommodates a row of objects rather than a single centrepiece.

The waterproof surface makes this decorative wooden serving tray suited to everyday use. Each piece is individually handcrafted; print placement and colour tone may vary slightly between pieces as a natural feature of the process.

Disclaimer

• These pieces are handcrafted in wood with a printed surface. Variations in tone and colour are a natural feature of the process.
• Minor differences in print registration or surface texture should be understood as the signature of individual craft, not a defect.