Naqshi Nesting Table Set — Red & Silver (4 Pieces)

About this piece

Naqshi Nesting Table Set — Red & Silver (4 Pieces): four stacking tables with red and silver tops. Made by hand from sheesham (rosewood) and coloured lac and finished in naqshi lac, the pattern scratched back through the colour, in the Sillanwali Handicrafts workshop in Sillanwali, Sargodha, Punjab, Pakistan. It costs PKR 14,000. It is ready to ship and delivered within 3 to 4 days anywhere in Pakistan, paid in cash on delivery.

Four stacking tables with dark frames and red lacquer tops edged in silver-toned scratchwork. The contrast is the design. Frames and legs are left dark so they recede, and the red tops sit above them like panels rather than reading as part of a single block of furniture — which is why this set looks lighter in a room than a set finished the same colour throughout. The silver-toned work is cut into the border of each top with the sathrī, the iron tool that opens the furrow through the red lac, and it is kept to the edge deliberately: a silver band frames the red and holds it, where silver across the whole face would break the colour up. They step down in size and store inside one another, so four side tables occupy the floor space of one between uses. Made in Sillanwali, Sargodha, and cut individually, so the border pattern differs from set to set. Dust with a soft dry cloth, keep water, polish sprays and chemical cleaners off the lac, and keep the tables out of direct sunlight so the red does not fade. A name or a date can be worked into the border of the largest top on request.

Every piece is made by hand, so the wood grain, carving and colour vary a little from the photo. That variation is normal and is what makes each one its own.