'Kundan' Oval Tray in Printed Wood

Provenance

The Kundan 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, adapting the vocabulary of India's painted and lacquered woodwork to contemporary domestic forms.

The surface print on Kundan draws from the vocabulary of Indian ornamental jewellery — the faceted gem, the kundan setting, the radial form of stonework that organises the surface of India's finest jewelled objects. Kundan in Hindi names the refined gold used in traditional jewellery-making — the 24-carat gold that forms the setting base for kundan jewellery, in which gems are embedded directly into the gold rather than held in claws. The jewel-motif print on this oval serving tray translates that dense, ordered ornamental sensibility to a daily surface.

The waterproof surface makes this decorative serving tray suited to everyday use. Each piece is individually handcrafted; print placement and colour tone may vary slightly between pieces.

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.