Essays by Ayesha Abdur-Rahman

Burgomaster Chairs

Burgomaster chairs, also called round chairs, are characteristic to the period of Sri Lanka dominated by the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or VOC). Read more...

Dating the Furniture of Sri Lanka

The dating of Sri Lanka produced furniture and other decorative arts can be problematic for many reasons. Design styles were influenced by the changes in European furniture tastes. Furniture styles were sometimes copied from original pieces brought from Europe, Batavia (now, North Jakarta, Indonesia), and India. Read more...

Woods Used in Sri Lanka Furniture

Throughout south and southeast Asia numerous tropical hardwood have been used in furniture making. The most popularly used woods during Sri Lanka's Portuguese, Dutch and British periods (ca.1505 to 1948) are jak, ebony, calamander, satinwood, nadun, and teak. Read more...

Adisham

In 1887 Thomas Lister Villiers arrived in Ceylon to start a career as a planter. He began as a creeper (trainee) at Elbedde Estate, Bogawantalawa. After his marriage to a daughter of another tea planter he spent four years in Brazil, returning to Sri Lanka to begin his own tea estate the Dikoya Group. Read more...