Global Exchange
The Ahmedabad Wood Carving Company furniture is a physical embodiment of cultural, economic, and artistic exchange at a global scale. Nineteenth-century Ahmedabad was a center of trade in western India and was celebrated for its luxury textile production and cosmopolitan architecture. The Hutheesing family played a major role in this artistic economy as city leaders and as benefactors of the magnificent Hutheesing Jain Temple, constructed in 1848.
In 1881, de Forest began a successful collaboration with Muggunbhai Hutheesing. Introduced during de Forest's honeymoon travels in India, their chance encounter augured a lifelong friendship that spanned decades, generations, and continents. Together, the two men established the Ahmedabad Wood Carving Company, which employed up to 100 carpenters and artisans to produce fine furniture, decorative metalwork, and carved architectural elements for de Forest's American clientele. The workshop initially produced teakwood copies of stone traceries selected from Ahmedabad's historic mosques but quickly expanded to produce original designs in furniture, screens, and paneling.
Both partners were responsible for the success of the business. Muggunbhai Hutheesing's local ties and cultural capital enabled him to gather and effectively manage a workshop of highly skilled carpenters. De Forest's financial capital, social connections to American buyers, and business partnership with American artist and decorator Louis Comfort Tiffany extended the workshop's global reach. Teakwood carvings produced by the Company were featured in international exhibitions in Lahore (1881), Calcutta (1883-4), London (1886), Glasgow (1888), and Chicago (1893).
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