A Remarkable Ladies Dressing Table made for His Exalted Highness Osman Ali, the Nizam of Hyderabad, by the Goldsmiths & Silversmiths Company Ltd of London

H: 60 in / 153 cm W: 89 in / 225 cm D: 28.5 in / 72 cm Constructed in mahogany in the form of a kneehole desk with a modesty screen, rising from Chippendale style carved bracket feet, the banks of pedestals fitted with lockable faux drawers to the left, concealing a safe, and drawers to the right, fitted with ormolu chased swan neck handles; the lockable and hinged panelled top rising to reveal an adjustable triptych bevelled dressing mirror, with provisions for a pair of scallop shaded electrical lights, and having an enclosed body, fitted with an array of cut glass unguent bottles, all with Hall Marked silver tops, enamelled with an Art Deco design, and bearing wonderfully detailed portraits of the Nizam in regal Indian dress, and all the necessary accoutrements of shoe horns, button hooks, combs, brushes, clippers, files and etc, for a ladies toilet.

The Nizam's Dressing Table from Butchoff Antiques on Vimeo.

Provenance: In 1937, with a fortune estimated at 2 billion dollars, The Nizam was the absolute ruler of 16 million people in the state of Hyderabad and the highest-ranking prince of India. As an autonomous state, His Exalted Highness established his own bank and issued his own currency: the Hyderabadi rupee. The Nizam was both a charitable and generous man whose financial contributions to Britain's war effort earned him the post-World War I title of "Faithful Ally of the British Crown." During the First World War he purchased and presented to the RAF a squadron of bombers, that was named the Hyderabad Squadron, and equipped the Australian Navy with a destroyer, HMAS Nizam. Artist Biography: The company began trading in 1880 as the ‘Manufacturing Goldsmiths and Silversmiths Ltd’ with extensive premises, covering a quarter of an acre, at 112 Regent Street, having been established by William Gibson and John Langman, who had their marks registered at both the London and Sheffield Assay Offices. In 1889 they acquired Mappin Brothers, followed by the acquisition in 1893 with the Goldsmiths Alliance (A B Savory & Sons), further acquiring Garrard & Co (established in 1725, the Crown Jewellers, a title bestowed on the company by Queen Victoria in 1843) in 1952.
In 1959 Mappin and Webb took over the Goldsmiths & Silversmiths Company Ltd. The company had participated in International exhibitions in the Philadelphia Centennial exhibition of 1876, Paris in 1889 and, 1900, winning the Grand Prix prize, with William Gibson being made a chevalier of the Legion d’honneur.